Night Caps :)

I don't know about you guys, but mid-Summer knitting for me always involves a hat or two. it gives me a jump on my holiday gifts, gets a few skeins out of stash, and makes for a small lap project I can bring wherever I go. (Which, these days, is admittedly not that far, but I still prefer portability!)

Anyways, if you have been here for a bit, you already know how much I love my Magpie Fibers Nest, and I had these two gorgeous blue skeins sitting on the shelf just waiting for me.  I had also been wanting to play with some of the beautiful cables in Norah Gaughan's Knitted Cable Sourcebook , so I picked up the yarn and opened the book and after a few days of drawings and swatches, I made these two Night Caps!

Both hats feature modified versions of the same slanted cable - and each one has details that lend themselves a little differently to the idea. I played with placement of the cables, customized the crown shaping for each repeat, and tweaked the overall fit of the hat to best suit each of the cables in different ways.

I then graded both hats in sizes from 13"/33cm around to 21.25"/54cm around, so these could fit almost anyone in your family. And, depending on the color of yarn chosen and your pompom preference, the designs are wonderfully unisex as well.

The Night Caps PDF contains instructions for both hats,  and you can easily pair either silhouette (beanie or longer top) with either cable patttern. Notes are in the document on how to modify the designs for length or width and the cable motifs are both charted and written.   

A little about each:

10pm is worked in Twilight Magpie, a soft blue with a lovely heather to it. It's worked as a simple fitted beanie with the slanted cable repeated in the same direction across the body of the hat. This creates a beautiful diagonal across the hat and allows the ribs to open up below the detail, emphasizing the bold lines of the cables from top to bottom.  It has a classic vibe when worn fitted, and the pom just makes things fun. 

11pm is worked in Twilight Dark, a deep navy that will go with literally any jacket I own this winter. Here, the cables are placed much lower on the hat and designed to face one another in a wider motif. This allows for a beatiful brim and encourages the ribbing to become the focus up top, drawing attention to the shape on this hat, featuring a bit of a "peak" when worked to a depth that's just a little longer than needed. As someone who wears a bun often, I'm kind of excited about a little extra room up there, but I know that my daughter liked the cool vibe this added without any hair to hide, and it just looked good on my husband at this depth!

Yardage information by size is below, broken out for each hat:

10pm, sizes and yardage: 
13(15,17,19.25,21.25)�/33(38,43.25,49,54)cm around head, 7(8,8,8,9)�/17.75(20.25,20.25,20.25, 22.75)cm deep to center of crown. Hat stretches about 2-3�/5-7.75cm when worn.

175(185,200,210,225)yds/160(170,182,192, 205)m including pom, shown in Twilight Magpie.    


11pm, sizes and yardage: 
13(17,21.25)�/33(43.25,54)cm around head, 8.5(9,9)�/21.5(22.75,22.75)cm deep to center of crown.
Hat stretches about 2-3�/5-7.75cm when worn.

185(200,225)yds/170(182,205)m, shown in Twilight Dark.



For anyone having trouble accessing Ravelry right now, the Night Caps (and all of my other patterns) are also available on LoveKnitting.

Before I sign off, a special thank you to everyone who bought New York Sour or another of my patterns over the Juneteenth weekend. With your help, I was able to send of $1,250.00 to BlackMamasMatter, to help them fight inequality in maternal care, rights, and justice for black women.

Stay safe and healthy and please, please, please wear a mask, my friends!

xo, Thea