To his unending sorrow, my boyfriend is incapable of growing a full beard. A light moustache, the occasional stray cheek hair, an oddly perfect isosceles triangle on his chin…this is the extent of his facial growth. Enter…the dwarven battle bonnet!

With its flecks of white and mixed-fiber composition, Remix is the perfect yarn for this pattern. To adjust for the change in weight, I went down a needle size (to US 7) and cast on the smaller size (96 stitches). Jason has a bit of a narrow face, so the smaller fit is perfect on him. If I were to knit this pattern in worsted for someone with a rounded face - for example, me - I’d definitely knit the larger size. Also: The mouth opening was a bit large on Jason (again - he’s narrow), so I threaded a piece of yarn around and cinched it tight, which created a bit of a ripple down the length of the beard.

Instead of a flat cast off on the beard, I knit a few rows, then bound off 7-10 stitches on each side, repeating for a chunky effect that ended in a peak.

(Snow photos taken in January 2016 - five years after binding this sucker off!)