Rachel, my best friend from childhood, has been asking me to knit her a hat for three years. When I visited her in Seattle in 2012 we even picked out the yarn and everything.
She requested a cable hat and I’ve never had such a hard time finding a pattern I liked. I started three different patterns including the classic “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch Nation” one, but I just didn’t like them.
So I tucked the ball of purple yarn away in my stash and temporarily gave up.
Three years later I called Rachel to tell her I was coming back to Seattle for a work trip and asked if she would like me to bring her anything from home. She reminded me of my hat promise. I was determined this time that I would have a finished hat by the time I reached The City of Flowers.
I went back to Ravelry and found just what I was looking for. It must not have been posted when I last looked up cabled hats.
Presenting the Mermaid Hat:
I used Blue Sky Alpaca’s Worsted Hand Dyed yarn in Mulberry. The downside was I only bought one skein and ran out of yarn two rounds before the end. Luckily I had left a long tail when I started so I had to Frankenstein the yarn toward the end, but it all worked out. PHEW!
I really loved the little braided stitch going up the hat between the cables. It is a good pattern for folks who have gotten down cables but are still not ready for anything complicated.
Alaska Knit Nat 