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.

Pelagic adjective of or relating to the open sea or ocean

So you know that skein of really variegated sock yarn? The one you couldn’t resist in the shop? But it turned out to be a bit more energetic than you expected and you’ve been wondering what to do with ever since?

Yeah, this is what you do with it!

By pairing a lovely vibrant sock yarn (don’t kid me, you’ve got one in your stash) with a rather more subdued DK or sport weight yarn (I suspect you’ve got one of those too), you can work magic.

You don’t need a huge amount of either yarn (175 yards or less of each yarn will make the hat, and 75 yards or less of each will make the cuffs), so it’s a fantastic stash buster. And while you’re technically working with two yarns, you only ever use one in any given row, so it’s perfect if you’re a bit scared of proper colorwork (I know I am).

The pattern includes the directions for both the hat and the cuffs. Each piece is written in four sizes (an 88, 96, 104, & 112-stitch cast on for the hat, and a 24, 28, 32, & 36-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 4.5, 5, 5.5, or 6 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 19 and 25.5 inches (with lots of points in between) and the cuffs will fit a wrist between 5.25 and 9.75 inches (again, with lots of points in between).

These are perfect for you if:

• You have some super colorful sock yarn lurking in your stash
• You think two patterns are more fun than one
• You’re looking for stashbuster projects

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)