Banded Loom Hat has been designed to play nicely with variegated and self striping sock yarn. I know that I’m not the only knitter with skeins of yarn that are too pretty, not robust enough or just not calling out to be socks; try this pattern to showcase your favourite yarns and bring out the beauty within the skein.

I was designing this hat over the Christmas period, and something about the pattern seemed very familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, until one day I looked up from my work to see the band loom necklace my son was wearing – the slip stitches bear more than a passing resemblance to the twisted bands especially in the bright yarn used for my first sample – my new pattern had found a name!

Banded Loom Hat is a simple semi slouchy style hat with a slipped stitch ‘loop’ pattern on the brim and body of the hat. It is begun at the brim using the smaller needles, a slip stitch pattern creates the looped ribbing. The main body of the hat is then worked with the larger needles using a simple slipped stitch and two stitch cables to create the effect of lops swirling up to the crown where rapid decreases bring the loops into a star shape at the center of the hat.

This pattern is suitable for advanced beginners who are comfortable with working in the round, slipping stitches, working two stitch cables and decreasing.

Yarn
190 (230, 272, 320) m 207 (250, 298, 350) yards fingering/light fingering sock yarn

Tension
32 sts and 44 rows to 10cm 4 inches in Stocking Stitch using larger needles

Needles
2.75, 3.25mm US Size 2, 3 needles or size needed to obtain gauge. (Use double points, magic loop, 30 cm 12 inch circular, or two circulars to work the hat according to preference.
If using DPN’s please ensure that they are long enough to hold the number of stitches required comfortably. The slipped stitches seemed to cause more problems with dropped stitches during testing than would be expected with conventional stitches

Notions
Yarn Needle, Stitch Marker, Cable Needle

Sizing
Child (Adult S,M, L) to fit head circumference 46 (51, 56, 61) cm 18 (20, 22, 24) inches – designed to fit with approx 5% negative ease.

Thank you to my wonderful test knitters amayzingrace, Juliemross, Istya and sparkye, this is a better pattern for your help - many thanks.