This pattern is for a Kep Hat. It is worked in the round from the bottom up. Starting with a ribbed section, the headband is knitted in the round, folded and joined by knitting stitches together with the provisionally cast on stitches. The rest of the hat is knitted from the charts on pages 5 and 6. Stitches are decreased to form the top of the hat where a tassel is added to finish.

You may not need a whole ball of each colour as you will only need a tiny bit of the high-contrast “pop” colour. You could therefore use one of the lesser used colours for your ribbing (ie CC7) since it wont be seen from the outside. I used oddments from my stash.

You could possibly get away with omitting CC2 altogether and just use CC1. CC2 is one of the colours that you don’t need much of. I used it for a subtle extra depth of the background colour in the centre of my original Up Helly Aa pattern, (That and a dogged determination to use ALL 8 of the colours chosen by Jamieson & Smith for their Fire Festival KAL back in 2016 / 2017).

Size
To fit a medium size head (22-23” / 56-58.5cm circumference). The hat is knitted with 1 – 2 inches of negative ease. It is designed to stay on your head in the windiest of conditions.

You can make the hat as long or as short as you like by adding extra motifs but remember you may need more wool. You can knit the motifs wherever you like, but be aware that chart B fits very nicely on the brim! My pictures show two versions. They are different colourways and different lengths. “Felix” is the green Kep and measure 14” / 36cm and “Robbie” is the blue Kep and measures 11.5” / 29cm cm. Both measurements exclude the tassle and they are slightly different versions. The tassel is optional and you could always use a pompom if you prefer! Bear in mind that if you want your Vikings to be seen (and not for them to be upside

Tension
28 stitches and 32 rows to 10cm square knitted in the round and measured over the charted patterns on page 5 using 2.75mm needles. Gauge is important.

Materials -
Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight Shetland Wool. 100% Shetland Wool. 115m / 125y per 25g ball. Two balls of MC, One ball of all others (7 colours). You may even be able to use scraps for CC2 and CC7.