Introducing Sunset Slouch

This spring has been unseasonably cold — so much so that it made me want to reach for something soft, warm, and cuddly. One thing led to another and soon I had not one, not two, but THREE lace beanies! Here's Sunset Slouch.

The origins of this pattern can actually be traced further back to last December. I was looking for something to knit with this handspun BFL yarn I'd spun eons ago in 2014. I wanted an interesting pattern to show off the subtle color variation in the yarn. As luck would have it, I also happened to have leftovers of a similarly-color silk mohair yarn in stash. Plain stockinette seemed too simple but the combination of the two yarns made me think of the previous time I'd used two yarns combined: the December 2020 pattern Golden Hour Cowl.

Sunset Slouch is an intricate lace hat that features the same undulating stitch pattern as seen on the cowl. The lace pattern reminded me of hourglasses which inspired the name, golden hour referring to the brief moment shortly before sunset when daylight is softer and warmer in hue than when the sun is higher in the sky. And what comes after the golden hour? Sunset, of course!

This lace pattern is quite complex and involves a lot of twisted and traveling stitches. Cabling without a cable needle will speed up your knitting considerable but you have to be extra careful to catch both strands of yarn. There are also a couple of points in the stitch pattern where a cable crosses the boundary between rounds. Like in the cowl pattern, I've included a step-by-step photo tutorial for handling this. Instructions for the lace pattern as well as the crown decreases are fully written out round by round in addition to charts.

Like the cowl, Sunset Slouch is knit with one strand of fingering-weight yarn and the other a fluffy lace-weight silk mohair. I experimented with different combinations — lighter-colored main yarn with darker fluff and vice versa — but all of the three hats I knit the two yarns are pretty similar in color.

A darker mohair with a lighter-colored base yarn makes the entire pattern glow (yellow sample) while a lighter mohair with a darker base yarn creates a frosted look (pink sample). A higher-contrast pairing would create a dramatic look! It'd be interesting to try this with a black base yarn and an intensely colorful mohair...

For my three sample hats I used:

red slouchy: handspun BFL + Wool Me Once Fibers Kid Mohair Silk in colorway Art Passionné

pink beanie: Retrosaria Mondim in the colorway #110 + Sandnes Garn Tynn Silk Mohair in the colorway #4310

yellow beanie: Retrosaria Mondim in the colorway #211 + Filcolana Tilia in the colorway #136

The pattern for Sunset Slouch comes in two sizes (small or large) and two styles (beanie or slouchy). The red one above is the slouchy style; the pink and yellow are both beanies. In addition, both circumference and length can be adjusted within the stitch pattern if you want to make a custom size or are using a different yarn weight.

To knit Sunset Slouch you'll need

• smooth fingering-weight yarn, such as wool or wool/nylon blend, from approx. 115–145 m (or 125–160 yd) for the beanie to approx. 145–170 m (or 160–185 yd) for the slouchy

• equivalent yardage of a fluffy lace-weight yarn, such as mohair, mohair/silk, or brushed alpaca

• 3.5 & 5.0 mm or US #4 & #8 short circular needles (or size to obtain gauge)

• one stitch marker

• and an optional cable needle.

The pattern is now available in my pattern shops on Payhip, LoveCrafts, and Ravelry (seizure warning). I'd love to see your color combination: share your project with the hashtags #sunsetslouch and #talviknits on Instagram.

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