This pattern is retired and not usually available. However, I make many of my retired patterns available for a few days twice a year, and this is one of those times! It will be available from now through some time on Monday, December 2. Then it will go away again.

In the summer of 2022, I realized that I found maintaining a back catalog of hundreds of patterns overwhelming. I couldn’t do it and still release new things. So I took my old patterns down so I could keep doing new work.

A few favorites have come back, and lots of new things have come out! But the vast majority of the old patterns are retired and are no longer generally available.

However, enough folks have asked about old favorites that I make many of the retired patterns available for a few days twice a year (usually in early summer and around Thanksgiving).

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available!
• If you don’t see the buy buttons on this page, then it’s not currently available.
• If you want to hear when the retired patterns are available, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

Plicate adjective having a surface that is marked with parallel ridges

I like slouchy hats. I actually kind of love slouchy hats. They are absolutely adorable.

On other people.

On me I always worry I’ll do something wrong when I put them on (especially if I’m somewhere where I can’t see what I’m doing) and it’ll look like I put a potato sack on my head.

So I decided to fix that.

I made a hat where you can lock in just the perfect amount of slouch when you finish the hat and it’ll just stay like that. All on its own. Forever. No matter how many times you shove it in your coat pocket or toss it in the back seat of your car.

And I have to say, this has significantly improved my experience of wearing slouch hats. All I have to do is put the rumpled part in the back (something I can more or less manage even if I can’t see what I’m doing) and trust that it looks adorable.

Now of course, if you are more stylish and confident in your fashion choices than I am (and you probably are!), you totally don’t have to do the neat little magic trick to lock in the slouch ahead of time. You can totally skip that bit and trust in your innate ability to make your hat look awesome every time you put it on. I have complete faith in you.

But I? I with my potato sack fears and persistent sense that I might be doing hats wrong? I’ll totally be cheating and doing mine ahead of time!

The hat is written in five sizes (castons of 80, 88, 96, 104, or 112 stitches), and you should feel free to adjust your gauge a bit to fine tune the fit of the hat. Just be sure that you’re working at a gauge that gives you a fabric you like with your chosen yarn!

I recommend working at something around 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, or 6 stitches per inch, and I’ve included a table to help you figure out what gauge you’ll want to use for your size. With that range of sizes and gauges, the hat will fit a head between 19 and 24.75 inches (with lots of points in between).

I’ve knit mine with a strand of sock yarn and a strand of laceweight mohair held together. You don’t have to use two yarns held together, but I do recommend using a yarn (or yarns) that give you a drapey fabric (one that crumples easily and is not too stiff). That means you’ll probably be working at a looser gauge (fewer stitches per inch) and with bigger needles than you might expect.
I also think something with a bit of a halo (like you get from a yarn with mohair or alpaca or something else fuzzy) lets you knit a bit more loosely, which gives you that softer drape, while still looking like a solid fabric. So if you’re not holding two yarns together, I recommend considering yarn that’s a bit fuzzy (such as a yarn with some alpaca or mohair or angora content).

This is perfect for you if:

• You’ve secretly longed for slouchy hats but been too worried about the logistics of getting them on your head right every time you put them on
• You’re just absolutely itching to do something delightful with a fuzzy yarn

It’s not for you if:

• You don’t like charts (the pattern uses charts)
• You hate swatching (you need to swatch to check your needle size)