Hunter's Orange

Have you ever tried to find yarn in hunter's orange? It's certainly no easy task. A few weeks ago, I scoured my well-stocked LYS in search of a superwash wool in Hunter's Orange, and even with the help of the shop owner, we really didn't come up with more than 2-3 yarns in the appropriate shade.

Why that particular shade? Linh's husband Nick is a hunter. *gasp* Just the word "hunter" does not sit well with me, since I was a strict vegetarian for 11 years. (And although I am no longer a vegetarian, I really don't eat much meat, and when I do, it's usually just chicken and seafood.) Nick requested that I make him a hat with earflaps for him for the chilly early morning hunting outings with his friends and family in Arkansas. If they weren't such good friends, I surely would've said "no."

Most oranges were more rust and a few scary neon ones. I couldn't find any superwash, but I finally settled on a worsted weight virgin wool that was the perfect shade, albeit not superwash. There was some Anny Blatt superwash that came as a close second, but the color still was not right. I ended up knitting the hat by double stranding it and working it on US #7 so that it's extra thick. For the earflaps, I continued the double stranding and thrummed it with some merino and alpaca roving. Nick will surely have warm ears! Because the virgin wool is a little scratchy, I soaked it first in hair conditioner and then later with Soak wool rinse.

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the hat. Even more unfortunate is that Linh reports Nick's head is super large and the hat is a little snug. Bummer. Maybe it'll be tight enough to distract him and make him miss shooting Bambi and Mama Deer.