I was inspired to knit this tam spurred on by memories of looking through a glorious stack of hand-knitted tams in a little shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. I was a student at the university there at the time and couldn’t possibly afford them. I had very little knitting experience at the time and so they remained as a desire only.

Several years later, I had been knitting socks for a while and came across some other beautiful tams in the ‘Toast’ catalogue. They weren’t hand-knitted this time but they reminded me of my long-standing desire to own one of these works of art.

My only problem was to find a pattern. Luckily Ravelry had this one for free. I knitted it according to the pattern but this basic pattern is endlessly adaptable. I hope to knit my own stack of colourful tams now using more traditional Fair Isle patterns.

My only adaptation was to use 3mm needles for the body instead of the 2.75. I like a generously sized hat.

Next time I will invest in some circular needles. I used only double pointed needles for this which slowed me down while I worried about stitches being too close to the points and slipping off.