Lest We Forget’ Tam:
The tam, tammy or tam o’ Shanter is named after a character from one of the poems of the Scottish bard, Robert Burns, though this style actually became popular much earlier than this. It hit the height of fashion for men at the end of the 16th century in Scotland and was very similar to the flat bonnet that was common in north-western Europe at that time.

My poppy tam was inspired by a conversation that I was party to in the wee village of Dallas in the Scottish Highlands, regarding the village war memorial. A local amateur historian was researching and concentrating on the lives of those named on it, not on their deaths. This struck a chord and I decided to design a bright and happy hat that celebrated the lives of those lost, with bright poppies of remembrance.

The Lest We Forget Tam is light as a feather, yet incredibly warm because of the double thickness created by the floats of colour on the reverse side of the knitting. It can be worn with the crown draped down the side of the head or can also be worn as a beanie.
It features a colourful corrugated rib, a band of Barley heads, a band of Poppy leaves, then a flat crown, made up of bright red Poppy flowers and a row of white crosses, as you can find in Flanders fields. It is finished with a single poppy head in the centre of the crown.

The tam is knitted in the round so there are no seams. It is knitted from the rib up to the crown. You may use a set of double-pointed knitting needles or a circular knitting needle, depending on your preference, though you may still need double-pointed needles for the crown decreases.

Only 2 colours are used at any one time, apart from in the poppy heads. You can duplicate stitch/Swiss darn the black stitches in later, if you would prefer not to knit with 3 colours in the row. There are some floats to the rear of your knitting that need to be caught up.

Some experience in fair isle or stranded colour work is needed for this pattern, although full instructions are given for the construction methods used.

This poppy design says thank you to those who made the ultimate sacrifice…Lest we forget. I do hope you enjoy knitting your tam and watching your poppies grow.

Materials:

4ply/Fingering weight Shetland wool or equivalent:

Actual amounts used are listed below, but please use this as a rough guide only, given that different brands may differ slightly. The yardage of the yarn used was 215m/236yds per 50g.

Dark Green: 20g Gold: 15g Red: 12g Light Green: 8g Black: 6g White: 5g

Knitting Needles:

One set of double-pointed 3.00mm (US 2.5) knitting needles is suggested for knitting the rib on the tam.
One set of double-pointed 3.25mm (US 3) knitting needles is suggested for knitting the rest of the tam after the rib.
One set of single-pointed 2.5mm (US 1.5) needles is suggested for knitting the poppy crown-topper.
(You may use circular knitting needles of the same sizes, if preferred)

Measurements (unstretched):

One size fit most: Circumference of band 21 inches / 54cm by length 10 inches / 25cm

Tension:

28 stitches and 36 rows to 10cm over the pattern.