Knit a Pretty Tam in Two Colors

There are all sorts of fun hat knitting patterns out there, but I will admit to mostly having knit beanies throughout my knitting career. But there are lots of other fun shapes that allow you to bring different kinds of colorwork to the party, like a tam.

Tams are similar in shape to berets, and both are fun to stitch. The best part is that you can fit a fun circular pattern on the top, which is harder to do on a hat with less real estate.

This Fair Isle Tame from Lion Brand Yarn has a fun design on the top that kind of reminds me of a compass. On the sides of the hat you will find a round of diamonds with little floral shapes inside.

The design is worked in two colors of DK/light weight yarn. The pattern comes in one size, with a circumference at the ribbing of about 20 inches/50.8 cm, which is meant to fit an adult woman but should be a little stretchy to fit a variety of heads.

It’s worked from the bottom up in the round and the colorwork is worked from charts. The pattern is rated for intermediate knitters because of the colorwork and the charts. But it looks like it would be a lot of fun to make!

The pattern for this fair isle tam is free from the Lion Brand website. You can also buy a kit that includes the yarn (you’ll just need one ball each of the two colors in the yarn suggested) and other tools if you need them.

If you’re ready to learn how to knit fair isle or stranded knitting (there is technically a difference but this pattern calls itself fair isle so we’ll go with that), I’ve got a tutorial over on my website, Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

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