How The West Was Spun: Belle Starr Bison-Fiber Hat

As promised, my recently completed FO - the "Belle Starr Hat". This is a sneak-preview for those of you in the Exotic Fibers Spinning Club; those packages will go out in another 10 days or so.

Believe it or not, this little hat took only an ounce of 2-ply hand-spun bison fiber, spun up in a DK weight. It would work very nicely with the last odd 100 yards of another project if you have some lying around. I'll be posting a free pattern for this once the fiber club folks get theirs.

Project Specs:

Hand-spun DK-weight 2-ply yarn, spun from bison fiber. This makes for a very soft and light, but very warm yarn. The initial 2-ounce skein had 135 yards to it, and I used about half (the hat weighs 1.01 ounces).
Design details include a subtle chevron-edging, which is formed by the arrowhead-lace pattern. This is a simple 4-row repeat and works up quickly. The crown of the hat has decreases which form a star pattern, highlighted with purled stitches.
Needles: Size 6 (4-mm) circulars and then DPNs. These allow for a slightly stretchy, but not very tight hat. Those with smaller heads could go down a needle size and tighten up the lace a bit if they wished.

The bison fiber was interesting to work with. It's definitely not wool, and it took a bit of sampling for my hands to find a groove when spinning. I wound up going with a sort of hybridized supported long draw. Hard to describe, but I kept my hands closer together to be sure the shorter downy fibers wouldn't pull apart, but I pulled back against the tension of the wheel and let the twist run into the fiber source. The bison also really benefits from a bit of cold water shock therapy after it's spun. It makes for a much more even and softer finished product.

All for now......

August 2008