This pattern (along with most of my earlier work) was retired in the summer of 2022. However, it may be available for a few days once or twice a year. Read on for details!

In the summer of 2022, I realized that maintaining a back catalog of hundreds of patterns was kind of overwhelming. I couldn’t do it and still release new things. So I took my old patterns down so I could keep doing new work.

Since then, a handful of my favorites have come back, and lovely new things have come out. But the vast majority of the old patterns are retired and will no longer be generally available.

However, enough folks have asked about some old favorites that I’m planning to make many of the retired patterns available for a few days once or twice a year (most likely in late spring and then again in the fall around Thanksgiving).

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available, and you’re welcome to grab it!
• If you don’t see the buy buttons on this page, then it’s not currently available.
• If you want to hear when the retired patterns will be available, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

Lucent adjective glowing with or giving off light

You know that perfect balance point? The one right between ‘you did something shockingly clever’ and ‘this was absurdly simple?’ The one where you walk away feeling like you maybe did something sneaky, because the end result looks so much niftier than the amount of effort you put in should allow for?

Yeah. This hat rides that balance point absolutely perfectly.

You start with a ribbed brim (easy peasy), then work about two dozen rows of a nifty little sunburst pattern.

Once that’s done, you find a crochet hook and three quiet minutes to do Precisely One Very Very Slightly Fiddly row. All you’re doing is dropping down a couple columns of stitches and gathering them back up with a crochet hook (if you’ve ever picked up a dropped stitch with a crochet hook, you’ve basically already done this part!). There are step by step photos, it’s not at all hard, but you probably do want to do it in a moment where you can hear yourself think.

Once that One Single Fiddly Row is done, you take a moment to admire your work (because wow is it pretty!), then the rest of the hat is just plain old stockinette until you reach the decreases. Thus making this project the absolute perfect balance between clever and easy and impressive and mellow.

Which honestly? Sounds like just what I could use right about now…

The hat is written in six sizes (castons of 93, 101, 109, 117, 125, or 131 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 5, 5.5, 6, or 6.5 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 19 and 25.5 inches (with lots of points in between).

This is perfect for you if:

• You need a mellow project, but still want it to look like you did something impressive
• You’ve suddenly realized just how unspeakably adorable you and everyone you know looks in asymmetrical hats

It’s not for you if:

• You don’t like charts (the pattern uses charts)
• You hate swatching (you need to swatch to check your needle size)