Monkey Hat by Mary Ann Stephens

Monkey Hat

This pattern is available for $6.00 USD
buy it now or visit pattern website

Newborn and infant sizes use fingering weight yarns; youth and teen/adult sizes use sport weight yarns. Dale Baby Ull was the fingering wt yarn originally used for the baby hats - try any of the several fingering weight substitutes listed above. Dale Falk was the sport wt yarn originally used for the adult hats - try any of the several sport weight yarns for the teen / adult size.

I originally developed these monkey motifs for my Sleepy Monkey Blanket design. Twenty new monkey faces have been added to the Monkey Hat pattern. They can be used in either design.

Here’s an excerpt from the Pattern Overview, Page One:

This is a circularly-knit, stranded knitting (Fair Isle / Norwegian-style) hat design. The bottom has a hemmed band with garter stitch accents and traditional stranded motifs. The upper portion has eight monkeys, staggered and framed in traditional stranded lattice motifs, covering all rows up to the top. The crown shaping is worked to form a dotted “X” between the monkeys, when viewed from above. A knotted I-cord loop adorns the top.

The Main Monkey Chart can be repeated …for a hat featuring all smiling, unembellished monkeys. Optionally, you can fill in your choice of expressions on the Monkey Maker chart. Either version can be embellished with duplicate stitch, or any embroidery you please, using either my monkeys shown on page four, or your own ideas.

The same set of instructions works for knitting hats in a range of sizes, from newborn through average adult,
provided the gauge and yarn is adjusted, as indicated in the pattern. Given the wide range of actual head circumferences within any age population, consider these age brackets as approximations. To best size an individual’s hat, measure their actual head circumference at its widest point – brow level - and subtract one to two inches from
that measurement (for “negative ease”, so that the hat stays put when worn) to obtain your targeted finished
circumference.

UPDATE:
8/18/12 fix: The line of text for the 3 rounds of 1:1 stripes near the bottom of the hat was missing from the original pattern.
8/27/12 fix: The usual symbols for SSK () & K2tog (/) were correctly used in the charts, but their descriptions in the chart legend were incorrectly switched. The 8/27/12 update has corrected legends, and includes the earlier fix, too.
If you purchased the PDF prior to that date, please feel free to download the update. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!