Pattern: Ilaisa's Loose Toque

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Christmas 2008, for my older daughter’s teacher, I knitted Myrrhia Resneck’s lovely “Ilaisa’s Wristies”, a fingerless glove pattern that works with many different yarn weights. I had three balls of a nice variegated worsted weight which I wanted to use, and after the wristwarmers were finished, there were almost two full balls left over.

So I whipped up a hat pattern to match: mostly stocking stitch, with the brim done in bell ribbing identical to that on the wristwarmers. This hat was intended to be a beret, but it doesn’t slouch enough for that, so it’s really more of a loose sort of toque.

For more information on Ilaisa’s Wristies, the inspiration for this pattern, Myrrhia Resneck’s knitting website is Myrrhialand, and her Etsy shop is Kapital Designs.

Sizing

• Finished brim circumference is 19.5" unstretched

Materials needed

• Yarn: 2 balls of Phildar "Exciting", 51% wool/49% viscose, 98yds/50g, colour 5004463005102 (you'll have over half the second ball left over)
• Needles: 4.5mm double-pointed needles OR two 4.5mm 16” circular needles (if using the two circular technique) OR one 4.5mm 80cm circular needle (if using the Magic Loop technique)

Gauge

• 20 stitches/24 rows = 4 inches in stocking stitch on 4.5mm needles