Personalized Name Winter Toque Knitting Pattern

Looking for a knit gift with a personal touch? How about knitting a hat with the recipient’s name on it?

This simple hat from Fox and Pine Stitches would be lovely all by itself, but you can make it, like, 50 percent cuter by adding an initial, monogram or even a full name (as long as it’s a short one!) to the body of the hat.

The letters are added with duplicate stitch once the hat is finished, so you can stitch a bunch of these up and then decide who you want to give them to and how you want to embellish them.

I love the look of the lettering matching a pompom on top, but you should go with what’s in your heart.

The hat includes sizes for newborns, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months, 1-3 years, 4-12 years and adult women.

The pattern calls for Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick, but you can use whatever super bulky yarn you have on hand. The only skills you need for this one are knitting, purling, working a knit 2 together and doing duplicate stitch.

Get the free pattern from Fox and Pine Stitches.

If you’ve never done duplicate stitch before, it’s actually pretty easy. It’s a method of adding graphic designs to the surface of a knitting project by literally sewing over — duplicating — the stitches below.

Duplicate stitch, also known as swiss darning, is a fun and effective tool to have in your colorwork arsenal. There’s a good tutorial at Purl Soho where you can learn the basics.

Check out more patterns using duplicate stitch: the Shape of My Heart Scarf, and this watermelon cushion are both good uses for it. And check out how a little bit of duplicate stitch makes it easier to give your kilt hose a tartan look.

[Photo: Fox and Pine Stitches]

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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