The story
Surfing over the internet Thelma found herself looking at pictures of Ladakhi people. Besides cute faces, there was a load of interesting knitwear to be seen. Handknitting is obviously ‘hot’ in the cold Himalayas. A lot of Ladakhi’s, especially children, wear hats with a leaf motif.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/subhadip/233896926

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/natekoechley/22282221

It’s clear that Thelma, being a geek for ethnic knits, wanted to copy those hats and write down a pattern for it.  Looking for more background info, she stumbled upon Tracy P. Hudson (a.k.a as Himalaya on Ravelry). Tracy is originally from Kansas USA, but actually learned how to knit from Ladakhi women, when she worked at a charity boarding school there. She published an article about it in Knitty

Tracy send Thelma a picture of a very special Ladakhi Leaf hat. Because of the double brim it’s a bit different from the usual leaf hat. It’s also quite ‘puffy’, almost beret-like. Most Ladakhi leaf hats are beanie style. Babies and toddlers sometimes wear them as bonnets too. 

The girl in the picture is called Angmo. It was her mother Dolkar who knitted the hat, without a pattern of course. If you want your girl to wear the same hat as Angmo, but think you need a pattern,  you can use this one.

It’s not an exact copy of course. One thing Thelma made up herself was the crown (invisible in the picture). Also she’s not sure if the purled brim was knit double and then folded to the inside.

More Ladakhi patterns
Would you like to knit more Ladakhi patterns? Then you’ll be happy to know that Tracy wrote down two traditional patterns too. You have to go to Ravelry, where you can find them for free. Look Tracy up als ‘Himalaya’.

Raised Chain Hat

Dzonba The Himalayan slipper