Astrophil Hat

Quick Summary:

• Worsted-weight
• Sizes: toddler, child, adult, and extra large (with detailed information for modifying)
• Simple cables which come together perfectly on top using easy decreases
• Matching baby blanket which is easy enough for beginning knitters – I’ll be releasing the pattern for FREE next month!

Story

Last year all of my in-laws took a family ski trip together after Christmas. To celebrate the occasion I made hats for all the kids since we don’t tend to keep warm winter hats on hand here in Louisiana. For the boys I made child size 1898 hats (this is one of my favorite patterns ever and it’s free – I’ll be putting up another post with my notes on how to modify it for babies and toddlers!). For the girls I designed the Astrophil hat.

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Astrophil uses a variation of the traditional Aran Honeycomb cable pattern which is easy enough for beginner knitters and is mostly just stockinette rows. By using a smaller needle size you can create really dense texture that resembles stars, and the dense fabric means it has lots of stretch to fit different heads.

This all-over cable patterns comes together neatly at the top using only basic decreases. The only one you might not be familiar with is the Central Double Decrease so I included step-by-step instructions at the end of the pattern. I’ve also created two tutorials here on the website that will be handy for this pattern: Lifted Increases and Making Cables Without a Cable Needle. You don’t need to use these techniques but it does make for a nicer finished hat. And once again I used the cast on method described in my previous tutorial: Perfect Cast On for k1/p1 Ribbing.

For the kids I added a 4-inch faux fur pom pom from Etsy. For myself I went luxury with a 100% alpaca pom pom made by ‘Toft UK’ which I bought during my visit to Tolt Yarn and Wool in Carnation, Washington this summer. You can also get them in their online shop.

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Name

When not fully stretched out, this cable pattern resembles many interlinking stars and indeed some stitch dictionaries call it “Telescope Lattice” – so an astronomical theme seemed fitting.

The name ‘Astrophil’ comes from Sir Philip Sidney’s (1554-1586) sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella. I can’t sing so when my son was born I recited poetry to calm him down instead of lullabies. He responded particularly well to sonnets and I’d cycle through all the ones I knew in chronological order, which meant Sidney’s poems from the 1580’s came first. As you’re clever enough to deduce “Astrophil” breaks down into ‘star-lover’ (Greek ‘aster’+’phil’) and “Stella” is the latin for ‘star’.

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Matching Blanket

Keep an eye out next month for the matching baby blanket pattern which I’ll release for free. The instructions will cover DK, Worsted and Bulky weights and I’ll be adding Fingering and Sport weight later on!

You can find this pattern and detailed information about each of the samples shown on Ravelry:

(Also available on Etsy and LoveCrafts)