DIY: Knit October Hat and Free Pattern by Sloane Rosenthal

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I’ve now knit the October Hat by Sloane Rosenthal six times!

At the beginning of December, we received a custom order for six matching hats. After a couple emails back and forth, we decided on the free October Hat. The October Hat by Sloane Rosenthal is part of the Year of Hats collection by Kelbourne Woolens.

To knit the hat, I used almost seven full skeins of Dream in Color Classy yarn in the Peacock Shadow colourway. Each hat took less than one skein of yarn, but the three requested pompoms used up a lot! This yarn is hand-dyed in Arizona. I find the tonal colour really beautiful and striking, and used a skein of Raspberry Blaze to knit my first ever piece. While knitting, some of the dye rubbed off on my fingers. I had to ensure I gave the hats several good rinses before I blocked them.

Each hat took me a couple days to knit. The pattern starts with 5″ of 2×2 rib, which I could do while watching TV or while commuting on the subway. Then there are ten rows of the set-up cable design. After that, there are four repeats of the eight-row cable design. Each design repeat was 40 stitches long but quite intuitive. After the first hat, I barely had to refer to the pattern! The pattern includes written instructions for a tubular cast on, and written instructions for the ribbing and decreases. However, the cable pattern is only available in chart form. I decided to skip the tubular cast on and just do a long-tail cast on instead.

The pattern includes mirror images of two types of cables. At the crown, integrated decreases add shaping while keeping the pattern uninterrupted. The cables really popped once I blocked the hats – never underestimate a good blocking!

My knitting gauge is always loose, and I always have to size down my needles. Instead of the suggested 3.75 mm and 4.5 mm needles, I used 3.25 and 3.5 mm needles to get gauge. Our customer requested that three of the hats have pompoms. I attached a small metal toggle bar closure so that the pompoms are detachable!

Since she and her family live in Toronto like us, the customer wanted warm hats. The cabled pattern is a lovely texture that adds warmth due to overlapping cable stitches. Furthermore, I chose a 100% merino wool yarn which is soft and lofty, but will remain warm even when wet!

The October Hat pattern is a great way to use up that one special skein of worsted or aran weight yarn.

Get the free October Hat pattern here.