This hat is designed to be a loose beanie. Depending on the shape and size of your head, and your aesthetic preferences, you may want to start shaping the crown either before or after the point I’ve specified in the pattern.

The finished hat is 21cm in height and has a circumference of approximately 50cm when unstreatched. It should fit the average female head.

To make the hat you will need the following materials:

• 2.75mm DPNs
• 3.75mm circular needle (40cm cable)
• 3.75mm DPNs

I used the following yarn:

• 2 x 50g balls of Dora’s Shetland Wool in natural white, a yarn produced locally to me which you can substitue for any natural white standard tension 4ply wool
• 1 x 25g ball of Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift (4ply) wool in ‘Burnt Umber’ (shade 1190).

Please note that the gauge is measured over the pattern.

The pattern’s name is taken from the poem ‘The Thought-Fox’ by Ted Hughes, which I discovered just after I’d finished knitting up the design. It’s about the creative inspiration that comes from wildness and I thought it was fitting for my fox designs, which are the first of a number I’ve been working on, all inspired by my love for the natural world.

If you like the hat, there’s a pattern for co-ordinating Thought-Foxes Wrist Warmers in my Ravelry store!