Explore Houndstooth Knitting with this Fun Hat Pattern

I don’t know why this hat pattern reminds me of Wednesday Addams. I guess it’s because of the black and white motif, which is commonly seen in a lot of her wardrobe, including her iconic checkerboard vest.

Of course you can knit houndstooth in any colors you like, but the high contrast of black and white makes it easy to see the pattern, both while you’re knitting and when you are wearing the hat. And if you’re a fan of SEC football, black and white houndstooth will always evoke Bear Bryant.

In any case, this pattern uses charts to show you how to do the colorwork, but they are easy to read and follow even if you’ve never read a chart before. You’ll quickly get the pattern repeat and be able to complete this cozy hat.

The pattern from Yarnspirations is rated for intermediate knitters because of the colorwork and needing to read the chart, but it’s really easy once you get the hang of it. The only potential issue is if you haven’t worked a lot of stranded colorwork before, you need to make sure that your floats are loose enough that the hat will still be stretchy enough to fit a head when you are done.

Because some of the floats and lengthy, too, you might want to catch the floats on the back as you go so the strands don’t get too long on the inside of the hat.

If you need help with the basics of stranded colorwork, this post from Tin Can Knits covers all the basics, including how to read a chart, how to deal with two colors on the same round, dealing with floats and trapping the color you’re not working with across the back, among other things. It’s a great overview of everything you need to know to knit this hat or any other simple stranded colorwork knitting pattern!

[Photo: Yarnspirations.]

Next Pattern:

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?