The Hermes Hat is a textured hat with a cable design inspired by the caduceus, a two limbed staff carried by the Greek god Hermes. It was originally designed to use a specific farm yarn made from the fleeces of a sheep named Hermes and his half-sister Hydra. Hermes and Hydra are both Merino x Romney crosses. As of this writing, Hermes and Hydra are enjoying life at Heliosphere Farm in Midcoast Maine.

The pattern involves cabled coils, which have a garter stitch center and sit on a purl stitch background. There is some elasticity in the knitted fabric, meaning you can cast on without precise knowledge of how big the wearer’s head is. The hat will pull in or stretch out a bit as needed, within reason of course. The original design fits an adult sized head. Use a lighter weight yarn (and correspondingly smaller needles) for a child sized version. If you want to use a heavier yarn, you can work four repeats of the pattern chart instead of five and have a snug but tall hat.