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.]

When I discovered Kate Atherley’s book Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond, I wasn’t sure there was enough to say about circular knitting to fill a book. It’s a pretty short book (144 pages) and includes 10 patterns to practice working in the round on small projects, and it provides a decent introduction to the various ways of working in the round.

The book covers using double pointed knitting needles, flexible double points and circular knitting needles with cables. It talks about working using the full circumference of a circular needle and various ways to work smaller circumference projects, such as using DPNs, magic loop and knitting with two circular knitting needles.

In addition there’s a discussion of preventing problems like twists and ladders, swatching in the round without actually swatching in the round, grafting, blocking and weaving in ends.

More specialized techniques likes knitting from the center out, stranded colorwork, helical knitting and jogless stripes are also explored, as well as working pieces like socks or mitts two at a time.

There’s also some information about seamless sweaters, including the different sweater designs that can be worked seamlessly (and why you might want seams in your sweaters) and how they are worked from the top down or the bottom up.

There are 10 patterns in the book, including a basic stockinette stitch cowl and one with a deliberate twist, wrist warmers, mitts and a pair of colorwork mittens, a hat worked in a solid color or in helical stripes, toe up and top down socks and a beret. It would have been nice to have a basic sweater pattern, too, since the book does talk about working larger garments with circular needles, but it’s still a nice collection of basic patterns worked in the round.

If you’re already comfortable working in the round in different ways, I’m not sure there’s much for you to learn in this book, but it is a good reference for people learning circular knitting or who maybe haven’t tried all the techniques yet or need skill building projects to try.

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 10 patterns. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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