When my daughter was quite little, we borrowed a beautiful picture book from the library. The story was of a young girl who lived somewhere very cold and quite remote, who had to walk in the dark to the school bus each morning, singing as she walked. I’m a sucker for gorgeous illustrations, and these were no exception, showing school children decked out in their knitted finest. The protagonist wore a hat with a two-toned pattern, and I was inspired to create a hat like hers.

My original concept was for two colours, but MAE looks just as sweet in a single colour. Choose a yarn with plenty of loft to bring out the incredible texture, and top with a pompom for a perfect finish.

Little Kid: from 48cm
Big Kid/Small Adult: from 53cm
Large Adult: from 56cm

32 sts over 10cm on 3.25mm/US 3 needles (number of rounds isn’t important)

Yarn required: approximately 140m of main colour, and 40m of contrast colour, PLUS extra for pompom.