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.

Semblance noun outward appearance or apparent form of something

I know. I know it looks kind of tricky right? Like you’re going to have to do something slightly unsavory with a cable needle. Or maybe like you’re going to find yourself doing a lot of counting and murmuring under your breath. Maybe even a bit of swearing if it’s been a particularly challenging sort of day.

But I promise it’s not.

That delightful little faux cable is actually shockingly simple (if you’ve done basic decreases like an ssk or a k2tog, you’ve totally already got the skills you’ll need, and there are even diagrams to walk you through it so you won’t ever feel lost). In fact, the fancy bit is only five stitches wide and two rows high. That’s it…one teeny tiny fancy bit that you’ll have memorized in no time. Then you just stack it up, and it looks kind of amazing. It’s somehow that most magical of things…auto pilot knitting that manages to look really impressive!

Oh and you absolutely do not have to tell anyone how easy it is. You can just let them go on and on about how tricky it looks while you stand there feeling smug. Feeling smug is one of life’s little pleasures, and you can totally indulge!

The hat is written in nine sizes (castons of 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 90, or 100 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 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, or 5.5 stitches per inch, and I’ve included a table to help you figure out what gauge you’ll want to use for your size. (You could use an even thinner yarn, but I think the stitch looks delightfully dramatic with heavier yarns.) With that range of sizes and gauges, the hat will fit a head between 17 and 24.75 inches (with lots of points in between).

This is perfect for you if:

• You share my fondness for that easy-yet-impressive thing…I swear it’s my knitting sweet spot
• You’ve got a skein or two of delightfully fat and squooshy yarn you weren’t quite sure what to do with

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)