This beanie pattern was chosen after I made a first attempt at a boy beanie for my friend Andrew. The feedback was that it looked like a tea cosy.

I quite like tea cosies but I do get that they aren’t terribly masculine so when my friend Mikey mentioned he’d like a beanie, I became determined to knit the most manly beanie in the world.

Some dedicated internet surfing on an afternoon at work when I was a bit motivationally challenged eventually brought me to Beanie No. 212. So butch! A pattern from 1940 made especially for our brave lads in the services! No namby-pamby tea parties here!

I adapted the pattern to work with some 8ply wool I had left over from Dylan’s blanket. As an aside, I’ve decided that baby blankets are great projects. Not only do they make far better presents at baby showers than those questionably amusing sloganned T-shirts (“I replaced the dog / If you think I’m cute you should see my Dad”, etc) but they generate very useful woolly leftovers.

The wool I chose was a sort of Air Force blue, to continue the square-jawed theme of the piece, and I cast on to my trusty circular needle. (I adapted that part of the original pattern, too - I have a morbid dread of DPNs).

The finished piece is very cool, I think. The decreases are quite streamlined, nothing cosy-ish about them, and the rolled brim looks very tough and blokey. Mikey swears he wears it, which is impressive as he’s obsessed with labels and thinks dressing down is wearing Gucci from their outlet shop in Milan. Mind you, I haven’t asked if he wears it outside - some questions you just don’t want answered.

Andrew may get a version of Beanie No. 212 once the tea cosy comments cease to rankle.