This pattern is retired and not usually available. However, I make many of my retired patterns available for a few days twice a year, and this is one of those times! It will be available from now through some time on Monday, December 2. Then it will go away again.

In the summer of 2022, I realized that I found maintaining a back catalog of hundreds of patterns 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.

A few favorites have come back, and lots of new things have come out! But the vast majority of the old patterns are retired and are no longer generally available.

However, enough folks have asked about old favorites that I make many of the retired patterns available for a few days twice a year (usually in early summer and around Thanksgiving).

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available!
• 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 are available, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

Compunction noun a twinge of misgiving

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time resisting lovely skeins of sock yarn. They just seem to follow me home (I suspect I’m not alone, as I know quite a few knitters who maintain that sock yarn doesn’t even really count as stash…).

But not all of that sock yarn can turn into socks. Sometimes it’s too pretty to hide in shoes. Sometimes it’s too delicate to subject to the rigors of life as a sock. Sometimes you just have enough socks and what you really could use is a hat…or maybe some mitts. If that’s what’s going on in your stash, this pattern will totally help you out.

The slip stitch pattern works beautifully with even the more adventurous sock yarns out there (slipped stitches are a great way to tame yarn that might be inclined to pool or flash). And I was able to make a large man’s hat and mitts out of just one skein of sock yarn with a few yards to spare.

And, just in case it’s sport- or DK-weight yarn that follows you home, I’ve written the pattern to work for those too!

The pattern includes the directions for both the hat and the cuffs. Each piece is written in four sizes (a 104, 112, 120, or 128-stitch cast on for the hat, and a 36, 40, 44, or 48-stitch cast on for the cuffs), and you should feel free to adjust your gauge a bit to fine tune the fit of the pieces. 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 5, 5.5, 6, or 6.5 stitches per inch, and I’ve included a table to help you figure out what gauge you’ll want to use for your size. With that range of sizes and gauges, the hat will fit a head between 17.5 and 25.5 inches (with lots of points in between) and the cuffs will fit a wrist between 6 and 10 inches (again, with lots of points in between).

These are perfect for you if:

• You’ve got a skein or two of sock yarn that just doesn’t want to be socks
• You’re looking for a quick, unisex hat and mitt set
• You love that herringbone texture as much as I do

They’re 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)