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.

I have a confession to make. I am occasionally overwhelmed by the urge to take a marker to my knitting (especially when I’m knitting cables). I don’t actually think you should do this (it’s messy, and doesn’t work as well as you’d think it would, ask me how I know). But you can get the same vibe (but with less swearing) if you’re willing to work a little bit of knitterly magic.

It’s not even very complicated magic. Just hold a contrast strand along with your main yarn while you work some of your stitches. That’s really all there is to it. It will feel weird for about the first three rows, then it will click, and you’ll feel like a magician.

I included a photo tutorial to walk you through the whole thing in excruciating detail. But really, you’ll have the hang of it in no time. If you can knit cables, you can do this.

The pattern officially includes the hat I show in the pictures, the one that uses one contrast color. Unofficially, you’ll find that I have a tendency to experiment. So I swatched up a three color variation and included charts and some general guidance for intrepid knitters who want to do some experiments of their own.

The hat is written in six sizes (castons of 86, 94, 102, 110, 118, 126 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 yarns!

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 17.5 and 25.75 inches (with lots of points in between).

Oh, and just to help you plan, I used about 175 yards of the main yarn (the light gray with speckles) and 50 yards of the contrast yarn (the pink one on the cable) to make a hat for a large adult. If you’re making a bigger or taller hat (or if you use a skinnier yarn), you might want more like 250 yards of the main yarn and 50 yards of the contrast yarn yarn.