Free knitting patterns
Mood toque
This is a reversible toque with a bit of stranded colourwork, sized for a toddler or young child (18 months to 4 years, depending on the size of the noggin). Wear it one side out, it's a happy face; wear it the other side out, it's a pirate. Or an alien. Or a devil. One side will likely get more wear than the other. It's not too hard to size up for an adult -- just wade through these comments.
In a nutshell, the brim is double-thick (you don't fold it up to wear the hat), mostly 1x1 ribbing except where the colourwork motifs are worked. The rest of the hat is a single thickness. The brim is knit flat; once finished, it's folded in half, concealing the messy wrong side, and the stitches from either side are knit and purled together. The hat is then worked in the round using a reversible stitch pattern. The crown has a bit of a boxy shape, and at the very end half of the live stitches are joined with a three-needle bind-off and the other half are grafted together, which makes the top of the hat look pretty good regardless which side is worn outwards.
This prototype was worked up in two different yarns: Patons Shetland Chunky in black (MC) and Patons Astra, double-stranded, in bright yellow (CC). That was the first problem for this particular cap: the quality of my stranded colourwork would have been better if I had been able to find a contrast colour in the same type of yarn, but certain limitations (both time and yarn shopping radius, plus the fact that Shetland Chunky doesn't come in bright yellow or alien green) prevented this. The double-stranded yellow is more dense, and resulted in amateurish colourwork.
The second problem is an aesthetics thing. I think I generally prefer intarsia and stranded colourwork with a higher signal-to-noise ratio. The gauge here is roughly 4 sts and 6 rows per inch, and in a happy face that's only about a dozen rows high the colourwork looks really jagged. Plus, the way this sample was knitted, one motif is knit upside-down (pirate), and the other right-side up (happy). Knit stitches being shaped the way they are, it looks like the pirate has yellow stubble. If that bothers you, you can always duplicate stitch over those stitch legs.
Also along those lines, if you work one motif upside down, train yourself to avoid your normal, proper habit in changing colours in stranded colourwork. If you've done that type of knitting, you probably know that you carry your main colour (here, the black) under the contrast colour; this makes the main colour more pronounced, and slightly lowers the position of the stitch compared to the position of the background stitches. That was good for the right-side-up-knit happy face, but not so good for the upside-down pirate. So when you're working the pirate, pretend that the contrast colour is actually your main colour.
Finally, in this prototype, the motifs were positioned in the same place: center front. Added to the density of the contrast yarn, this made that part of the brim very thick and inflexible.
So, with all that in mind, the next time I make this toque (and I know that I'll have to, in multiple sizes), I'm going to start with a double-knit cast on for twice as many stitches as required to go around the head, then work both faces of the brim from the bottom up (one side at at time; the stitches of the other face would be on waste yarn). And I'd probably stagger the position of the two motifs so that they'd always be positioned off to one side. And I might rejig it for a finer gauge, say 5 sts per inch.
If you upsize this pattern at this gauge, the brim could be kept at roughly the same depth. You'll want to make the body of the hat longer (taller). When you calculate the number of stitches you need to go around the head, keep it to a multiple of both 4 and 6 (72, 84, 96, etc.) if you use a (k1, p1)-based reversible stitch, such as the one used here. In fact, you might want to keep the (k1, p1) based stitch pattern, because it makes dividing up the stitches for the final bind-off/grafting easier.
Yarn: Main colour (MC), approximately 135 meters (148 yards) of chunky weight yarn. Contrast colour (CC), approximately 20 meters (22 yards) of chunky weight yarn. The specifications for MC are equal to one ball of Patons Shetland Chunky. For this 18 month to 4 year-sized pattern, I had enough of MC left over to add another inch to the body of the hat.
Gauge: About 4 sts and 6 rows to 2.5 cm (1") in either stockinette or Irish moss stitch
Needles: 4.5 mm (US 7), or whatever you need to get your gauge. In addition to needles adapted for working about 20" of flat knitting, you'll also need to knit a decreasing circumference in the round.
Stitch patterns: Irish moss st (worked in the round, 4 round repeat): Rounds 1 and 2, (k1, p1) to end; rounds 3 and 4, (p1, k1) to end.
Dec 1: when instructed to "dec 1", use an appropriate decrease method. Depending on your stitch pattern, it may be a k2tog or ssk, or a p2tog or p2tog tbl. In this pattern, two dec 1s are worked in immediate succession in order to keep the Irish moss pattern true; for example, if you just finished a purl stitch and you're instructed to work two decrease in a row, you'd probably work a ssk then a p2tog, and then your next stitch after that would be a knit. This preserves the (k1, p1) pattern. (The direction of the decrease is not too important if you're working in a dark colour -- no one will notice.)
With MC, cast on 72 sts, using a backwards loop or provisional cast-on.
Row 1: (K1, p1) 14 times; k16; (p1, k1) 14 times.
Row 2: (P1, k1) 14 times; p16; (k1, p1) 14 times. You have established a pattern of 28 sts of 1x1 ribbing, then 16 sts of st st, then 28 sts of 1x1 ribbing.
Continue working the first and last 28 sts of the brim in 1x1 ribbing, as set. On next row (row 3), start working the first colour motif (one of the upside-down charts) with CC. You will complete the chart on a WS row.
Work 6 rows in pattern in MC (28 sts of 1x1 ribbing, 16 sts of st st, 28 sts of 1x1 ribbing). RS is facing for the next row.
Continue working the first and last 28 sts of the brim in 1x1 ribbing, as set, and on next row start working the second colour motif (one of the right-side-up charts) with CC. You will complete the chart on a WS row.
Work 2 rows in pattern in CC.
Fold the brim in half, with the WS on the inside.
Next row: (k next live stitch together with corresponding loop picked up from cast-on edge, p next live stitch together with corresponding loop picked up from cast-on edge) to end: you have just completed 72 stitches of 1x1 ribbing.
(Long explanation of the above paragraph) You'll be working two sts together: one live st off your working needles, and one corresponding loop picked up from the cast-on edge. Take care to pick up a loop from the same column of stitches as the live stitch, so that your brim doesn't skew. On top of that, this is the foundation row for your reversible stitch pattern, which in this case is Irish moss, so you'll be working this row in a (k1, p1) type of pattern. Use whatever means of k2tog/ssk and p2tog/p2tog tbl works for you.
Switch to knitting in the round: join without twisting, pm to mark beginning of round if desired, and work in Irish moss in the round for about 3 inches (about 18 rounds).
Place four markers to divide the hat into four sections: two 24-stitch-wide sections centered at front and back, and two 12-stitch-wide sections at either side. If you used a marker to indicate the beginning of the round and treat the colourwork motifs as center front, place one marker 12 sts after beginning of round; second marker 12 sts after that; third marker 24 sts after the second marker; fourth marker 12 sts after the third marker.
Continuing to work in Irish moss, work a decrease round: work to 2 sts before marker; dec 1; slip marker; dec 1; repeat this for each marker during this round. You will have decreased 8 sts.
Work even in Irish moss for 3 more rounds, then repeat decrease round. Repeat these four rounds again: 48 sts remaining, divided up into front and back segments of 18 sts and side segments of 6 sts.
Work 1 round even in Irish moss, then repeat decrease round. Repeat these last two rounds again: 32 sts remaining, divided up into front and back segments of 14 sts and side segments of 2 sts.
Work 1 round even in Irish moss. On next round, work to 1 st before first marker; dec 1, removing marker. Remove second marker and dec 1 again. Work to 1 st before third marker and dec 1, removing marker. Remove fourth marker and dec 1. Stop with this dec; do not work to end of round. At this point, the side sts have been completely consumed by decreases, and you're left with 14 sts along each of the front and the back.
Prepare stitches for bind-off and grafting: with the front side facing you, place the seven knit stitches on one needle and the seven purl stitches on a second needle. Make sure that the point of the second needle holding the purl stitches is pointing towards the working yarn. With the back side facing you, place the knit stitches on a third needle and the purl stitches on a fourth needle. As with the second needle, make sure that the point of the fourth needle holding those purl stitches is pointing towards the working yarn. See the photo (and click to enlarge): the needles holding the purl stitches are in the middle, and the needles holding the knit stitches are on the outside.
If you're not afraid of letting live stitches off the needle, you'll find that this division of stitches is easily done: in a (k1, p1) pattern, when you take the stitches off the needle, the knit stitches tend to position themselves at the front, and the purl stitches at the back.
With the working yarn and another needle, work a three-needle bind-off on the two sets of purl stitches--your bind-off row will be 7 stitches long. Break the yarn, leaving a long enough tail to graft the remaining two sets of knit stitches; pull the yarn tail through the last live loop of your three-needle bind-off to secure that loop. Graft the front knit stitches to the back knit stitches, then secure and hide the yarn tail in between the bind-off and grafted layers.
Sew up the open edges of the brim, using a half-stitch-wide seam allowance. Secure and hide the yarn tail between the two layers of the brim.