A couple of weeks ago our friend Karen Templer of Fringe Association announced the second Hatalong in her series, L’Arbre by Cirilia Rose featuring The Fibre Co. Road to China. I immediately put all of my other WIPs aside and started planning my own.
Featuring the “Little Tree” stitch pattern, L’Arbre is a perfect hat for early spring nights. I used The Fibre Co. Road to China in apatite and I’m pretty excited about this pop of teal in my mostly grey, black, navy, and olive colored wardrobe. My L’Arbre was the perfect commuting project – simple, easy to read, but still engaging for mornings with 20 minutes train delays.
While knitting my L’Arbre, I rediscovered my love for Road to China and its blend of baby alpaca, silk, camel, and cashmere. In the worsted weight it truly stands out as a “treat yourself” yarn and I’m already hunting through our Road to China Worsted pattern archive for a belated mothers day present (sorry mom).
In terms of customization, I added 0.75″ to the brim length, but other than that I followed Cirilia’s pattern to a T (including spotting the little bit of errata that she posted on Instagram here). I had a lovely time knitting along with everyone in the #fringehatalong tag and can’t wait to see what Hatalong #3 has in store! A big thank you to Karen for organizing this awesome hatalong series and shoutout to Cirilia and STC Craft for the free L’Arbre pattern.
To purchase The Fibre Co. Road to China Worsted, click here, or contact a lovely Fibre Co. stockist in your area! -LM
{Top to images by Jared Flood and © STC and Jared Flood}
Question–when I blocked my hat, it grew! (And yes, I ignored blocking the swatch…) Is that normal for this yarn? Thanks!
PHB
Hi Tricia, We always recommend treating your swatch the way you will treat your finished piece. So in the case of this hat, Leah wet blocked her swatch, because she knew she was going to be wet blocking her hat (and most likely re-washing it in the future). Unfortunately, if you knit a gauge swatch, but do not block it, and then block your finished piece, it is as if you didn’t knit a swatch at all. This is because most knitted fabric, especially one with a high alpaca and silk blend such as RTC, behaves differently once wet blocked and tends to grow, so your unblocked swatch isn’t an accurate representation of your finished fabric. If it is way too large, you could try and re-block it, and really shove the fabric into size and pin it back into shape. Good luck! – KGO
Thank you for your response. I knew better, but oh well! I am going to use this blocked hat as my swatch and begin again. I LOVE the Road to China yard–it’s so soft and wonderful. Happy knitting!
PHB
Great hat! Love the stitch pattern!