Peruvian hat

We've been fascinated for years by an item in the De Young Museum's textile collection: a square knit hat with silly corner boings. It was knit in Peru in the 19th century, most likely from handspun alpaca, and is a very fine and tight fabric. It's not likely we'd ever really do something that authentic in scale, but we thought that it'd be a fun thing to do with bulky yarn, and whipped it out in a subtle authentic color which we hope will tame down the general effect :-). It turns out that it's a quick and easy project, and would be a lot of fun for babies too, say in fuschia...

Level of difficulty

Intermediate.

Size

Medium (22" around head).

Materials

1 ball Crystal Palace Iceland (100g, 110yd) color 3433 (bark)
1 set double-pointed needles size 10 ½
Optional: 1 circular needles size 10 ½, 16" long

Gauge

10 st and 14 rows for 4" (10cm) in plain stockinette.

DIRECTIONS

Note: all techniques described below, invisible cast-on, idiot-cord, and Kitchener stitch are very well explained in books by Elizabeth Zimmermann, who developed most of them.

Hat body

Start by making a square for the top of the hat.
Cast on 15 st, preferably with an invisible cast-on.
Knit in stockinette till you have a square, about 5" long.

Now we can make the usual cylinder for the hat sides.
At the end of a purl row, start picking up stitches in the knit direction all around the base square, knitting live stitches in order if you have any and picking up along the sides. [Switch to the circular needle to do this if you have one.]
Knit around in plain stockinette till the sides measure 5" high.

Finish off the edge with an idiot-cord cast-off. Cast on 2 st on a double-pointed needle, slide the stitches to the other end of the needle without turning it. *Knit the first 2 stitches, using the left side of the circular needle and pulling rather tightly on the first one. Knit the last stitch together with the next edge stitch of the hat border. Slide those 3 stitches back onto the double-pointed needle, and push them to the other end without turning.* Repeat between * till you run out of edge stitches. Weave ends together with a yarn needle, using Kitchener stitch if you know how.

Corner boings

Each corner gets several boings, each consisting of a short idiot-cord. Placement is not absolutely crucial, but clustrered boings should start from more or less the same corner point, very close together.
Using a pair of double-pointed needles, start by picking up 3 stitches at one ofthe corners. Then knit a free-standing idiot-cord. *Slide the stitches to the other end of the needle without turning it, knit the stitches again, pulling rather tightly on the first one.* Repeat between * till the cord is about 1 ½" long, bind off pulling the 3 stitches together.
Repeat all around so you have at least 3 boings per corner.

Using a yarn needle, work in the ends left at the base of the boings, preferably so each goes through the base fabric and into the center of another boing. The original also had the free ends of the boings finished, but in this case Nicole suggested that leaving them dangling was quite in the spirit of the thing, and general concensus went very much with that. Suit yourself on this, but if you leave the ends free trim them so they're about 2", so you can change your mind and work them in later if they get worn.