R2D2 knit hat pattern

I have finally gotten around to writing up the pattern and plotting the chart for my R2D2 toque (aka the R2D-toque).



The PDFs require Adobe Reader (or Acrobat), which can be downloaded for free here. The PDF of the pattern can be downloaded by clicking here and the chart by clicking here.

The hat was knit with Sandnes Garn Alfa colour 1042 (grey) and Galway colour 10 (navy), though a later incarnation used Diamond (colour 848) due to lack of Galway and a comment about itchiness. The little bit of red and black was good old Paton's Shetland Chunky from the stash.

I am assuming that knitters who come to this pattern know intarsia and knitting in the round. In terms of difficulty, I would rate this as intermediate if only for the number of different bobbins/balls of yarn that need to be wrangled. Frankly, having now knit three hats in one month, I'm a bit sick of it and am happy to turn over R2D-toque duties to the other knitgeeks out there.

I've tested the chart but not the written instructions, so if anything needs clarifying or if there are any errors, please leave me a comment.

R2D2 toque

On the 9th day of Christmas (i.e., 4 days before), I finished knitting another Star Wars project:


An R2D2 toque for Jeff, the same recipient of the Boba Fett balaclava. The pattern was inspired by another R2D2 hat I found online, but because I wanted more of a toque than a beanie, because my gauge was quite different, and because I'm anal-retentive and wanted a super-accurate pattern, I made my own chart, which I will post once I have a moment to figure out how to make an electronic copy.

For the knitters: I knit most of the hat on straight needles so that I could use the intarsia colour knitting method, though there was some stranded/Fair Isle knitting in an attempt to reduce the number of ends that would need weaving in. I even decreased on the straight needles until I got to the blue circle at the very top, whereupon I switched to dpns and sewed up the seam with a mattress stitch. As it turned out, my attempts to keep the ends to a minimum were unsuccessful.

Witness the hat's insides:


But once everything was woven in and cut off, the end result was, if I may say, brilliant:



Edited Jan. 22 to add: Post with pattern and chart can be found here.

Hat #1 (sort of)

This is not the first hat that I've knit. Before knitting this hat, I had even graduated to balaclavas (which require, let me tell you, way more yarn).

But after a summer full of gift knitting, I was determined to knit a hat for myself.

Here it is:


3 AM Cable Hat knitted with one 50g skein of Rowan Classic Yarns Soft Tweed, colour Thistle, on 7.0mm needles (circulars and dpns).

The brim is a little short, yes. I finished the hat (knit bottom to top) and had a little ball left over. Decided that the best thing to do was to pick up stitches at the bottom and knit in the 2x2 rib until the yarn was all used up. Turns out the line where I picked up stitches works as a natural fold. I like the pattern a lot, but wish there was a way to knit the hat top down so that I could be more efficient about yarn usage and not worry about how long to make the brim. I am tempted, however, to buy more yarn (I've been thinking a lot about Bunny Paint colorway 071 that I've seen at a couple of stores) and knit another hat using this pattern. We'll see.

And if I could figure out how to line this hat, I could even wear it in freezingest Edmonton winter. Suggestions?

Things I've learned from knitting this ski mask

This damned, frustrating ski mask.


1. I finally understand the purpose of the selvage stitch, i.e., the single stitch knitters sometimes add to each side of their knitting. It's particularly useful if you are knitting separate pieces that will be sewn together.

2. Necks are skinnier than heads. I should have knit the neck smaller.

3. Ribbing can be your friend because it's stretchy. Related to the "necks are skinnier than heads" category.

4. Ribbing, however, does not work when knitting intarsia (a method of incorporating different colours).

5. When knitting something designed from scratch that already looks too big, it's better to have the recipient around (i.e., in the same city) for emergency fittings.

6. The "first pancake rule" (i.e., the first pancake is the imperfect "warm up" pancake) applies to design projects. Duh. I keep telling myself that if it all goes to pot, this is a prototype. Prototypes are good.

7. I am a yarn snob. I cannot shake the guilt of gifting something made from an acrylic/wool blend.

8. Never never never never weave in the ends until you are sure you will not need to unknit anything when you realize that the cable cast-on was done incorrectly because you were too lazy to read step three of the instructions, instead assuming that it read "repeat as in Step 2 until finished." Ahem.

9. The frightening ski masks from a previous post? Patterns here!

A very geeky birthday

Between the "Optimash Prime" Mr. Potato Head and the CBC Radio-Canada Messenger bag, Natalie (of DarNat) had a pretty geeky birthday. And I did nothing to help the matter:


Natalie is sporting a Jayne Hat that I knit for her (when she first asked me about it, I thought she meant the mob cap that Jane Austen is usually depicted as wearing. I'm really glad she didn't want one of those).


The pattern was a combination of what I found here and here, modified for lighter weight yarn and corresponding needles (5.5 mm or size 9). I knit two: one for Nat's sister (the original impetus for the project) and one for Nat, when I realized that I had enough yarn to knit two hats and that Nat's birthday was coming up.

The next knitting project is (sadly?) Star Wars related and will likely involve designing for the first time. The learning curve? It is exponential, my friends.