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.

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This is a companion to Incise (the wearable hats in the picture at the bottom of this page).

This started with a simple idea…I wanted a few little ornaments. Easy enough, right? But once I had the yarn in hand, I went a little overboard. I kept making more and more and more.

To keep from knitting a truly ridiculous number of tiny hats, I made myself a few rules. First, each hat had to use the same number of stitches and the same brim. Next, they all had to use slipped stitches (so you’re only ever using one color per row…aka the easy kind of colorwork for when that fancy multiple colors in a row stuff is just too hard). Also, all the main pattern on each hat had to happen with just with slips, knits, and purls, no increases or decreases (because some days it’s better to keep things simple). And finally, the decreases at the top had to be something special (just because they’re tiny doesn’t mean they don’t deserve amazing crowns).

But even with that, I had a hard time stopping. I came up with a dozen different variations before I was done. And then, after all that, I decided they needed tiny perfect tassels to finish them off.

The pattern includes it all…all twelve mini hat patterns plus detailed instructions on how to make either twisted cord or tassels to hang them with (yes, they’re optional, but my goodness are they cute).

Gauge isn’t quite as important for these as it usually is, but I recommend working at something like 8 stitches per inch to make a hat that’s about 3 inches across and 3 inches tall. You’ll need less than 40 yards of yarn to make one ornament (half in the main color, half in the contrast color) plus up to 25 yards of yarn for the tassel and cord, if you decide to make one.

These are perfect for you if:

• You love exploring variations on a theme
• You’ve got room on your tree for a few more ornaments

They’re not for you if:

• You don’t like charts (the pattern uses charts)
• You think these are people sized hats…they’re not, they’re ornament sized