Ensorcellment

General information

This 24-page pattern is tremendously detailed and holds your hand every step of the way. There are pages and pages of step-by-step photos to show you exactly what to expect as you work. The pattern is full of helpful tips on everything from casting on, blocking, getting the brim to behave, making that awesome curly tip, and managing your ends.

It’s almost absurdly detailed, but it really does mean you can totally make these, even if you’ve never knit a project like this before!

Skills & scope

Each hat or ghost fits in the palm of your hand and takes only a few hours to knit. The knitting is surprisingly mellow, mostly stockinette in the round with a few decreases here and there to give it shape.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The hat pattern comes in four sizes (all sized to be decorations, not sized to be wearable), the ghost in one.

You can make them in any weight of yarn, and the finished size will change depending on what yarn you use. You don’t need to match any particular gauge, but you do need to knit tightly enough to make a firm fabric so your the pieces have enough structure to hold themselves up.

I’ve knit these in everything from fingering-weight up through bulky-weight yarns.

You can absolutely use scrap yarn for this.

The hats in the pictures took less than 100 yards of the main yarn, less than 20 yards of the yarn used for the optional contrast band. The ghosts took less than 100 yards of yarn. They are worked between 9 stitches per inch (for the fingering-weight yarn) and 5 stitches per inch (for the bulky-weight yarn). The hat is between 3 and 8 inches across at the edge of the brim and between 3 and 5 inches tall. The ghost’s body is about 2 inches across and between 5 and 6 inches tall.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a firm fabric with your chosen yarn plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker or bit of scrap yarn to hold stitches).

You may also want wire or pipe cleaners to stiffen the brim of the hats or to shape the points into a curl (both are optional, they’re adorable either way). I have a page here with information about the supplies I use in my projects.