Malabrigo Quickie: Hengpai - A Drop Stitch Slouch

As part of the Malabrigo Quickies Series, I present to you, Hengpai - A Drop Stitch Slouch. I've been wanting to knit something out of the Malabrigo Worsted  in Taureg since the moment I saw it. The color is just the most amazing teal-y blue; very rich and wonderfully semi-solid. Huge thanks to Malabrigo for their yarn support!

As I was knitting Clapo-Ktus, I just knew I was going to design something with a drop stitch pattern to it. I loved how easy it was and yet so effective.

The first of the hats I designed was Hengpai. This hat is knit sideways in stocking stitch using short rows to create the round shaping for the crown. Once all the short row sections are worked, the hat is cast off and the stitches are dropped to create the dropped stitch openwork pattern. Once the seam is sewn, stitches are then picked up and knit for the brim. I used a grafting technique to sew the seam for the back of the hat.


The second hat was Zongpai. This is a vertically worked drop stitch pattern knit out of Malabrigo Worsted in Lettuce. It will be released next week here and on Ravelry.

As I was knitting Hengpai and Zongpai, I was thinking about how both of the hats are very similar in their stitch pattern but yet a little different as one is knit vertically and one is knit horizontally.

In Chinese writing, one can write horizontally which is known as hengpai and one can write vertically which is known as zongpai. After reading about hengpai and zongpai, I knew my hats had their namesake.

Here are the details:                                         

* Malabrigo Worsted -1 Skein, Color Shown is #98 Tuareg

         - approx. 145-165 yards

* 5mm / US8 Straight Knitting Needles

* 5mm / US8 16" Circular Needle

*Tapestry Needle

Enjoy!

See you next Tuesday, when I will release Zongpai. I can't wait - it is quite the beauty!