Tag Archives: Berroco Lodge

Thar

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thar2This is Thar. Another in a series of Berroco hats named after. Hmm. Maybe the Thar Desert region to the east of the Indus River, in the Pakistani states of Rajasthan and Gujara. The hat doesn’t really remind me of Pakistan, though. Do you suppose Berroco meant tahr? A tahr is a goatlike mammal that lives on cliffs and mountains in southern India, Oman and the Himalayas. Probably not a typo. That’s not the kind of typo commercially produced patterns tend to have. There is a short little river in France named the Thar. There’s an SUV sold in India named Thar. Thar is a pharmaceutical company. And of course the word is also a variant of “there,” as in “them thar hills” or “thar she blows.”

So, meet Thar, a nice Berroco hat pattern that conjures up exotic goats, rugged cars, barren deserts, drugs and either bad or rustic or archaic grammar depending on your point of view. And it will also keep a head quite warm. Knit here in Lodge, a Berroco bulky mix of wool, rayon and nylon.

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(Un)Hinge

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This is a modification of Hinge, worn here by a 3-year old. Hinge is a hat pattern from Berroco’s Booklet #322. It’s an interesting booklet that includes four hats: Hinge, Gnat, Peel and Thar. (I don’t know why these name choices, but maybe they mean something to someone.)

Hinge is supposed to be slouch hat, but I had not quite enough yarn to give the slouch full sway. It’s knit in fisherman’s rib, a sort of “cheater’s” brioche stitch that involves knitting into the row below. I’d forgotten what a yarn hog the stitch is. It’s shown here in the yarn Berroco recommends for the pattern: Lodge, a bulky weight 47% nylon, 47% wool, 6% rayon blend. Berroco says its “mesmerizing color transitions are punctuated with vibrant tweed flecks” and that it “works up quickly into gorgeous stripes.” I agree it’s a very nice bulky weight. This beanie version of Hinge took 128 yards.

Here’s Hinge on a 6 year old:

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Here’s Hinge on an 11-year old. And here’s also where you will see that it’s knit flat and then seamed and that bulky Hinge doesn’t take too well to seaming.

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