Back in the day, I wrote a pattern for a plain torus that appears in Making Mathematics with Needlework. This is a variant on that pattern—it has a cable, much like frosting on a doughnut—and it is an updated version of that pattern, because this pattern includes more effective short-row techniques and links to grafting tutorials.

Materials needed:

• In addition to the main yarn, a yard or so of scrap yarn.
• One set of double-pointed needles, or two circulars, or one long circular for use with magic loop.
• A spare needle for cabling.
• Stuffing: Polyester fiberfill works best to avoid lumpiness.
• Two stitch markers, plus two locking stitch markers if you like Japanese short rows.
• A tapestry needle (or equivalent) for grafting and weaving in ends.

Skills needed: knit, purl, 2-stitch cable, short rows, grafting. The pattern contains links to tutorials for short rows and for grafting.

Sizing: A fingering-weight torus is approximately 3.5” in diameter and a worsted-weight torus is approximately 5” in diameter.

Gauge: Because the finished object is stuffed, swatch to obtain a fabric that is not loose, so the stuffing will not easily show between stitches.