Do you need a completely unique gift for someone in a medical or biological field? This easy colorwork hat would be perfect for a birthday, holiday, graduation, thank you, or congratulatory gift for your favorite…

• student or instructor in biology, medicine or imaging
• EKG or echocardiography technician
• cardiac care or Cath Lab nurse
• cardiologist or cardiovascular surgeon
• researcher in cardiovascular field
• ultrasound equipment technician or company rep
• transplant recipient or heart patient
• anyone who might like the design for itself

The pattern requires only very basic colorwork skills -- a chart and just two colors. You can adjust the brim length, but if you want to change the basic adult hat size, you’ll need to change the gauge. The pattern uses ~180 yards of black worsted, and ~80 of white.

The idea came when I studied echocardiography. This motif was originally a machine-knitting assignment recreating my favorite ultrasound view, the only one that shows the whole heart in its full glory. Yet it can also stand alone as an intriguing abstract design.

The heart motifs are bordered by an EKG tracing, partly to avoid long floats on the back, but also because the unbroken rhythm around the hat symbolizes what a heart does -- hopping up and down for a lifetime without ever stopping to rest.