This Pattern is Retired…but you can (probably) get it in November

I have a lot of patterns! But I also get overwhelmed if I have to deal with them all at once. So I’ve picked 12 of my favorites (the Core Collection) to keep around. Then every few months, I decide on a theme or a technique and make a handful of related patterns (the Rotating Collection) available for a little while (then they go away again).

The other patterns are retired and are not generally available. However, because I know some folks will want them, I make many of the retired patterns available for a few weeks every November. If you want me to tell you when they’re back, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, and I’ll let you know!

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available!
• If you don’t see the buy buttons on this page, it’s not currently available.
• If you want to hear when the retired patterns are available (most likely in November), subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

This is a companion to Refraction (the light purple hat in the picture at the bottom of this page.

This should not be this pretty. It should not be this pretty and it should not be this much fun. It’s far too simple to be so enchanting. And yet, somehow, it is.

Now, before we go any further, I want to issue a little disclaimer. I’m a brioche newbie (this is my second brioche project). But that’s actually ok, because it means you can absolutely do this project. Because either you’ve done brioche before (so you’re way more experienced than me), or you’ve not done it before, but you’re going to go watch this video (which is more or less how I learned) and practice for an hour, and then you’ll have just about as much experience as me. Either way, if I can do it, you can totally do it!

And I think you’re going to want to do it. Because it really is just about the most perfect example of how one tiny, perfectly placed flourish can create something ridiculously lovely. The vast majority of this is just plain old ribbing. But every now and then (about once every ninety stitches or so), you work one little fancy bit, and the result is sort of magical.

Oh and it’s reversible too! Both sides of the fabric are lovely. Deciding which side you like best may very well be the hardest part of the whole project.

The hat is written in three sizes (castons of 80, 96, and 112 stitches), and you should feel free to adjust your gauge a bit to fine tune the fit of the hat. Just be sure that you’re working at a gauge that gives you a fabric you like with your chosen yarn!

I recommend working at something around 4.5, 5, 5.5, or 6 stitches per inch, and I’ve included a table to help you figure out what gauge you’ll want to use for your size. With that range of sizes and gauges, the hat will fit a head between 18.5 and 24.5 inches (with lots of points in between).

You’ll need two different yarns, about the same amount of each. You should be able to very comfortably make any size with 150 yards of each yarn (I needed about 125 yards of each and I have a big head).

Oh and you totally don’t have to use mohair yarn if that looks scary to you or isn’t your cup of tea. This works beautifully with fingering, sport, or dk weight yarns, not just fluffy bits of nothingness!