Cabled Hat Knitting Patterns

For some reason cabled hats remind me of deep winter, like they’re the warmest possible kind of hat you could have. That isn’t necessarily true, but these cable knit hat patterns would be great if you’re getting ready for winter or need a cozy hat for any time of year.

The easiest cables are little braids, and you’ll get lots of practice working them with this basic cable hat pattern from LSGCrafts. The pattern includes options to make it slouchy or more of a beanie, and I think it uses bulky yarn.

If you want a more subtle cable pattern you can try the Elle hat from Yelena Chen. This one is a mostly ribbed hat with a bit of diagonal cables that almost look like hearts. The hat is worked from the bottom up and includes a chart for the cables. One size is available and it uses worsted weight yarn. You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

I love the color of the Chestertown Hat from Donna Estin Designs, probably because it just looks like fall. It also looks like a great project to try if knitting an Aran sweater is in your plans, because it features a couple of classic cable configurations you’ll do well to practice before taking on a bigger project. The pattern has a foldover brim for extra warmth, and is worked in worsted weight yarn with one size available.

Another pretty pairing of classic braids is found on the Campfire Beanie from Woolfield. This one also comes in one size and uses worsted weight yarn, and has a folded brim. It’s considered intermediate, as probably all of these are because of the cables and shaping that happens in them.

Go bolder with your cable choices with the Jar of Hearts Hat by Christy Houghton. This pretty twisted heart cable hat is worked in DK weight yarn and includes one size. The cable pattern is charted but this is a pretty easy one even if you’re new to cables and charts. Grab a copy from Ravelry.

I also like the Amberleigh hat and cowl duo pattern from Felicia Kulp (Ravelry). These patterns are sold in one download so you can make either or both with this fun round cable with textured stitches inside. The patterns call for worsted weight yarn and there’s one size of each in the pattern.

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I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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