You know that thing where something looks impressive but is actually ridiculously easy? So when people comment on it (which they inevitably do because of that aforementioned looking super impressive thing), you can either bask in their admiration and feel slightly smug (one of life’s truest pleasures), or exclaim excitedly over how easy it was and encourage them to try it to (another of life’s great joys).

Either way, you win!

And the embroidery on this hat is just that—impressive but easy. No really, it’s two steps (make some straight stitches, wrap some duplicate stitches around them). If you’ve ever embroidered on your knitting at all, you’ve almost certainly already done versions of everything you need to make this. And if you haven’t, this is actually a perfect first project to practice stitching on your knits. I’ll walk you through absolutely all of it (right down to being able to see the columns and rows in your fabric to keep yourself oriented).

And oh, once you’ve done this on one project, you can for sure do the same thing on other knits. Yes that absolutely includes store bought knits, and yes I can say with authority that this looks awesome worked over the bottom of a boring cotton sweater from the store.

You know you want to give it a try…just as soon as you finish your very fetching hat!

General information

This delightfully detailed pattern walks you through every detail of creating this lovely hat.

Skills & scope

This is very nearly all stockinette in the round, which I find to be some of the most soothing knitting in the world. You’ll start with a turned hem (don’t worry, I’ll talk you through it), knit the hat, then embroider it.

And of course I’ll tell you exactly how to do the embroidery. There are thirteen pages of embroidery info (so even if you’ve never embroidered on your knitting before, you’ll be able to do this), and I walk you stitch by stitch through the two embroidery pattern.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The hat comes in six sizes (80, 88, 96, 104, 112, and 120 stitch cast ons) and is written for six gauges (from four to six and a half stitches per inch in half stitch increments).

That means you can use just about any weight of yarn from fingering up through heavy worsted/aran, and there will be a size to fit pretty much anyone’s head.

The hat in the pictures took about 150 yards of an aran-weight yarn at 4 stitches per inch, plus about 20 yards of yarn for the embroidery.

If you’re making a larger size or using thinner yarn, 200 yards for the knitting and 30 for the embroidery is a safer bet.

You’ll also want a piece of scrap yarn at least three feet long.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a solid fabric with your chosen yarn, plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker).