The Treble Reel Toque is the sixth pattern in my ebook, All the Jigs and Reels.

The treble, or heavy, reel is usually the first hard (or heavy) shoe dance learned after the four softshoe dances. Hardshoes are the noise makers everyone remembers from “Riverdance”. Like the light reel, the treble reel is in 4/4 time. The cables I’ve chosen fit the 4/4 theme and there’s a bit of moss stitch for accent.

The Treble Reel Toque is knit in the round and involves some short-rows to lengthen the back and keep your ears and neck warmer. Too often hats ride up exposing earlobes to the frigid winds. Not with this one! I live on an island in the North Atlantic Ocean and spent much of my life on the flat prairies of Western Canada; I understand never ending cold winds. I used basic wrap and turn short-rows, and these are explained in the pattern. I hope you’ll find them easy to do. This pattern also has decreasing cables in the crown shaping. These are explained in the notes section.

I have included both written instructions and a chart for the body of the hat, but the crown shaping is only written; I had a great deal of trouble trying to chart it clearly.

Other Materials

• 4.5mm/ US 7 needles for working in the rnd
• a locking st marker (for the beginning of the rnds)
• a cable needle
• tapestry needle (for weaving in ends)
• (optional) 3 other st markers to mark the chart repeats

Skills/Techniques Used

• knitting in the round, small circumference
• short rows in ribbing (explained in the pattern)
• cable knitting
• decreases: knit 2 together (K2tog), purl 2 together (P2tog), & slip next stitch, knit next 2 stitches together, pass the slipped stitch over (SK2P)

Update: With all the important discussions about accessibility going on, I’m making it a priority to go back through my patterns and add low vision pdfs to them. I’m using the guidelines set out by the Accessible Patterns group. A new Low Vision pdf has been added to this pattern’s file. This new pdf includes: all black text,
sans serif 22pt font, photo(s) captioned, pattern is left justified, and use of bold type in place of italics. All directions are fully written out line by line. This pattern can be completed without using the chart included.

Won’t you dance with me?