Oh, let’s talk about the yarns I used on this hat. You’ll want three, one floofy, two smooth. I know mixing and matching yarn can be a tiiiiny bit scary, but it’s actually sort of fun once you get the hang of it, and it’s a fantastic way to use some of those partial balls left over from other projects!

For the smooth yarns, you want them to both be about the same weight (here they’re both La Bien Aimée’s merino dk).

The weight itself doesn’t matter much. The pattern is written so you can work at 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, or 7 spi, so anything you can get a nice fabric with at one of those is great. That usually means sturdy fingering up through worsted will be perfect.

You’ll use one for the brim (that’s the darker purple here), and the other for the body (that’s the gray here). You’ll want ‘a hat’s worth’ of those yarns (which can be anywhere from about 200 – 300 yards, depending on how thick your yarn is). And about 1/3 of that will be with the color for the brim (it’s folded so it takes more than you’d think), 2/3 for the body.

For the floofy yarn, you want one of those silk mohair laceweight extravaganzas (here that’s @sevensistersarts celaeno).

You’ll be working with it both alone (for things like the welt near the brim and the wandering columns on the body of the hat) and held alongside the main yarn (for most of the body of the hat). And you’ll want that same ‘a hat’s worth’ (200-300 yards) of this one.

If you want to swatch to see what you like, you’re looking for stockinette in the round at something between 5-7 stitches per inch in the smooth yarn you want to use for the brim. Once you’ve got that, check to be sure you like the way your fabric looks when you hold the smooth yarn you want to use for the body alongside the floofy yarn (again, just in stockinette).

Now…you tell me, do you have any favorite combos for floor + base yarn? You folks are so fantastically good at combining colors and I love to see what you come up with! Or are you still feeling a little too nervous to give it a try (and if so, what would make you feel safe enough to try it)?