Restraint has never been my strong suit. When I find something I like, I want to keep playing with it until I’ve thoroughly explored all its charms. Sometimes that means I come back to earlier patterns and continue to experiment with them long after I probably should have moved on to other things. And that’s absolutely what happened here.

The original Constellate is one of my very favorite patterns ever. I love pretty much everything about it. And so, it seems, do a whole bunch of you. It’s by far my most frequently knit pattern!

So I suppose it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise when I wasn’t ready to be done with it after just one version. So first I made a contrast color version, and then I made some mitts to match (you can see the original and the mitts in some of the photos here).

But somehow, it still wasn’t enough. So I found myself making yet another version, this time using the same fancy stitches as in the original but stacking them up in a whole different way. It’s a perfect demonstration of just how much fun it can be to just keep playing with an idea and see where it goes!

And, since my lovely patreon folks are the ones who make it possible for me spend time playing with projects like these, it seemed only fair to have this version be exclusive to them for the moment (a version of it may eventually appear elsewhere, but for now, it’s just for them). I’m so delighted they make it possible for me explore things like this. It really does make my weird little heart happy!

General information

This 14-page pattern includes the pattern for the companion to the original Constellate hat.

Skills & scope

The actual knitting is surprisingly simple. This is, at its heart, just a basic stockinette hat. And every now and then, you’ll reach down through your fabric and pull an extra little loop of yarn through to make things fancy. It’s not hard, and there are nifty illustrations to walk you through it step by step.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The hat comes in five sizes (from a 104 stitch cast on to a 136 stitch cast on) and is written for four gauges (from five and a half to seven stitches per inch in half stitch increments). That means you can use just about any weight of yarn from fingering up through worsted, and there will be a size to fit pretty much anyone’s head. Basically anything that will give you a fabric with a drape you like somewhere in that range of gauges will work.

The hat in the pictures took about 325 yards of fingering-weight yarn. The fancy stitches do take a bit of extra yarn, so you will likely need a bit more yarn than you’re used to. But 375 yards should be a safe bet for any size.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a solid fabric with your chosen yarn plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker).