Easy Skyp PomPom Toque

I love knitting toques. They knit fast, and usually produce satisfactory results.

I often try to get away with knitting a toque without following any particular pattern, or even swatching, and most times (let’s say 3 times out of 5?) I get something that actually fits the way I intended it to. Unfortunately, that means that 2 times out of 5, I get something that looks nice, but doesn’t fit. This happened with a particular toque I knit way back this last summer, when I had just started practicing knitting with more than one colour and using my left hand in addition to my right. What I didn’t realize was that this would completely change the tension that I am used to, and produce a toque with not nearly enough stretch to fit over a child size head.

You would think that I would learn from my mistakes and now know the importance of swatching, right? Not exactly. While I did knit a swatch for a cowichan vest recently, that was a one time thing. I feel like this is one of those dirty closet secrets that I shouldn’t be even admitting to! Hopefully with time I will get into this habit, but for now, the lazy person in me prefers to knit an entire garment that doesn’t fit perfectly rather than spend an extra hour or so creating a swatch.

I happened to get lucky with this toque, fortunately. With Christmas so quickly approaching, I couldn’t really afford not to get this right, as this will be a gift to my adorable six year old nephew, who loves pompoms.

Here’s what I did. This pattern fits one six year old.

Materials

• US size 6.0 needles (4 mm) (I used circular needles with Magic Loop Technique)
• Wool of the Andes Worsted Yarn
  • 1 x 50 g ball in Main Colour (MC)
  • 1 x 50 g ball in Contrast Colour (CC)

Abbreviations

• k = knit
• p = purl
• skyp = slip one knit wise, knit one, yarn over, pass slipped stitch over both stitches
• co = cast on
• ssk = slip two stitches knitwise, knit the two stitches together using the left hand needle

Gauge: 24 stitches for 4 inches

Note: 1 skyp criss-cross = 2 stitches, so in the picture below you should be able to count 12 skyp criss-crosses within the extents of the arrow

Pattern Instructions

1. Cast on 88 stitches in CC and join to using Magic Loop to begin working in the round.
2. k2, p2 for 1 inch in CC
3. Switch to MC.
   • Row 1: skyp stitch for one full round.
   • Row 2: knit stitch for one full round.
4. Repeat Rows 1 and 2  until toque measures 6″ from CO edge. On last row, place stitch markers after every 11 stitches.
5. Knit Row 1.
6. Knit to two stitches before stitch marker, ssk. Repeat until end of round. You should now have 80 stitches on your needles.
7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until there are 48 stitches remaining.
8. Repeat Step 6 until there are 8 stitches, and then thread a piece of yarn through remaining stitches to finish toque.
9. Weave in ends.
10. Attach pompom! I used a large pompom maker (available here) for this section and found it much easier and faster than trying to make a homemade one using cardboard.

Enjoy!