DIY: Mauve Take Heart Hat by Fiona Alice

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I have been trying to knit this Mauve Take Heart Hat by Fiona Alice for a while now. The pattern calls for 100% alpaca aran weight yarn, which isn’t very common. I searched for the right skein in the many yarn festivals we visited over the last few years, but couldn’t find anything I loved. Instead, I found an aran weight mohair-wool blend at Wellington Fibres. This skein was in the discount bin because it had multiple knots in it. Untying knots (usually in tangled jewelry) is one of my special skills, so it didn’t bother me. I happily bought the unlabled skein for my growing stash.

Fiona Alice is a knitwear designer from Nova Scotia, Canada. She first published this pattern in issue 7 of Pom Pom Quarterly, one of our favourite knitting publications. Fiona then published a book, also called Take Heart, featuring this and ten other lovely patterns. We’ve already made the Queensland Beach Headband and the Caswell Bay Hat. Similar to those designs, Fiona created another richly textured accessory with a single coloured skein (I am not a fan of stranded colourwork).

The Mauve Take Heart Hat used 5.5 mm / US 9 and 6.0mm / US 10 needles to make size 1. I extended the brim to 14 cm, which is probaly my most common alteration. The longer brim means that the double layered portion of the brim is deeper and therefore warmer on my ears. My ears are extra sensitive to the wind, so I make these small adjustments for our cold Canadian winters.

Since the skein was in the discount bin, there wasn’t a detailed label on it. Therefore, I’m not sure about the exact mohair to wool ratio. However, I know that the mixed fibres make a strong, shiny, and extra warm yarn. Mohair takes dye very well and the result is this rich deep wine colour, a signature of Wellington Fibres.

Wellington Fibres is the first working fibre mill that I’ve visited. Meinhilde and I stopped there a few years ago on a local yarn excursion. We visited the shop and viewed the mill, which was smaller than I expected. Wellington is one of few local mills and many local yarn producers use these facilities, so I expected it to be bigger. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the creation of all the beautiful yarns.