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I’m switching it up a bit for this pattern – I actually made something meant for me! Yay! There seems to be a bit of a “messy bun hat” craze happening right now, so I thought I’d contribute some of my color work happiness to the party.

I honestly thought about getting REALLY crazy and just doing a single color.

And then I came to my senses and came up with this color work houndstooth motif instead! Color work forever, baby. And houndstooth. Houndstooth is awesome. You can never have enough houndstooth.

Now, for the hole in the top. This was actually the easy part. Literally, you just end the hat a few rows early.

Actually, that’s a bit of a fib. I did make a few adjustments to what I would normally do in the decrease rounds, mostly to a) preserve the awesomeness of the houndstooth and b) to help shape the hat better for messy-bun-ness.

I also made the hole nice and big so it’s easy to get a ponytail/bun through. It’s already kind of tricky to get a hat on while threading your hair through, let’s keep things as easy as possible, shall we? 😉

The yarn used for this hat is a soft, fuzzy, worsted weight yarn that makes the hat feel snuggly and warm. The blue is a tonal yarn that adds a bit of depth and fun. The white is a bare, non-dyed yarn, and works as a perfect partner to the variations in the blue yarn.

Hope you enjoy the pattern! Happy knitting!

Mrs. L

A Stroll in the Park

Size

Made for: Adult woman
Finished Size: 19.2in (48.5cm) around, 7in (17.8cm) height

Needle Size: US 7 (4.5mm)

Yarn

Preciosa Tonal by KnitPicks

• Main Color (MC): Maritime
• Alternate Color (A1): Bare

Difficulty

This pattern uses two-color stranding. This pattern also is knit in the round with circular knitting needles and assumes the use of magic loop for decreases.

Stitch Abbreviations

K = knit
K2tog = knit two together
M1 = make 1
PM = place stitch marker (optional)

() = repeat

Notes

Thank you haashausknits for helping test! I am always looking for pattern testers to improve my patterns! Send me a message on Ravelry (mrsluedeke) or leave a comment if you’d like to help test!

Directions

Using MC, cast on 76 stitches using long tail cast on. Join in the round, being careful not to twist the stitches. PM to mark end of round.

If you find you want a snugglier fit to your band, you can size down to a US 6 needle to cast on and for the first 9 rows.

Rounds 1-9: Using MC, (K1, P1) around. (76 sts)

Round 10: ((K4, M1) 4 times, (K3, M1) once) 4 times. (96 sts)

Rounds 11-18: Join A1. Using MC and A1, Work Chart 1 around.

Chart 1

Rounds 19-26: Repeat Rounds 11-18.

Rounds 27-34: Repeat Rounds 11-18.

Rounds 35-39: Complete Rounds 11-15 of Chart 1. Finish off A1.

At this point, your hat should measure 5.5in (14cm). You may need to add or remove Chart 1 rounds to get to this length.

Rounds 40-47: Work Chart 2 around. (96 sts, 88 sts, 80 sts, 72 sts, 64 sts, 56 sts, 48 sts, 40 sts)

Chart 2

NOTE: I made the hole nice and big to make it easy to slip the hat on and off over a ponytail/bun. If you would like to make the hole smaller, continue decreasing 2 extra rows in the style of Chart 2.

Bind off stitches using the decrease bind off method. Weave in loose ends.