All spun up, it was time to craft my alpaca yarn into… something. I needed something to test the properties of the yarn, something to compare to other fibers, something I’m comfortable making… a hat! (I know, none of you are surprised.) I chose to crochet the hat because it goes quickly, and I was anxious to see how it performs. I have read that alpaca doesn’t have the elasticity of wool. There is something about the differences in the crimp of the fiber; wool has more crimp, alpaca less. I went with a smaller crochet hook to get a tighter fabric, to try to compensate for less elasticity.

The color gradient turned out better than I expected. I would have liked a larger section between the fawn and brown color, but there is more here than I saw in the wound cake, so I’ll take it. The yarn crocheted up nicely. I do like single ply for crochet. The stitches look so much nicer; less like knots.

Interestingly, when I blocked the hat, it was still water resistant. It took some working to actually wet the hat so that I could lay it out to dry.