Free pattern download: Three hats, one pattern

I have only been knitting for two years or so and, as many of you know, I couldn’t knit when I bought the wool shop.

It was a steep learning curve, to say the least.

Over the past two years, I have noticed how structured many knitters are. Take Wendy – our onsite knitting expert – for instance. She will pull knitting back (undo all her hard work) if she finds she has made a mistake.

I, on the other hand, will carry on and brand my mistake as a “creative interpretation”.

Over the Christmas period, I have been working on a hat pattern – it’s easy and simple.

My pattern is knitted on circular needles with a 40cm cord.  I cast on 90 stitches, did garter stitch for 10 rows, then felt like a change so I did a further 10 rows using a purl stitch.

I quite liked how the purl stood out from the curly garter stitch, so I did another 10 rows garter stitch, 10 purl, 10 garter, 10 purl and then began to cast off for the crown of the hat.

I had a couple of different hat patterns in front of me for ideas of how to cast off the crown.  But, as usual, I couldn’t find them at the casting off point.

I wondered what it would look like if I just began knitting 2 tog to the end, so I did.

What I ended up with was a beautifully, wibbly-wobbly look, which I loved.

On my second attempt, I used contrasting colours for the garter and purl stitches.  When I got to the crown, I tried K4 K2tog for the first round, K3 K2tog for the second. The third, K2 K2tog and so on, until finally finishing with K2tog to the end.

It gave me a lovely stalk, which was just calling out for a tassel – any excuse.

I am now on my 4th hat and I have put the patterns away.

Maybe that’s what we do this year; we put the patterns away and use any stitch we like and any yarn we like.

Who says there isn’t beauty in imperfection?

Download the pattern for free, here.