A Toque for Paddy

There's nothing worse than a summer cold so when Paddy complained that his head felt chilly, we felt honour-bound to do something about it. We don't want him getting sick after all. We expect his little friends could use a nice, warm toque, too. Just in case you find yourself with a hat-less monkey, here's how we made ours ...

Paddy’s head is 8 ½ inches around.

You will need some leftover sock yarn and a set of 4 double-point needles in size 3.5mm (4US).

Cast-on 44 stitches. Join in the round and knit 1 ½ inches of K2, P2 ribbing.

Switch to stockinette stitch by knitting every round. Reduce 2 stitches somewhere in the first round. Continue knitting evenly until work measures 3 inches from the cast-on edge. 

Decrease for the crown:

Rnd 1: * K5, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 2: Knit

Rnd 3: * K4, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 4: Knit

Rnd 5: * K3, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 6: Knit

Rnd 7: * K2, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 8: Knit

Rnd 9: * K1, K2 tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 10: Knit

Rnd 11: * K2tog, rep from * to end.

Cut the yarn leaving a 10-inch tail. Thread the tail on a darning needle and draw the tail through the remaining stitches. Draw up tightly and fasten. Pull the tail to the inside of the toque and make a pompom. (Monkeys like pompoms.)

Pompom:

Cut a piece of cardboard about 3 inches long x ¾ inch wide. Holding a 6-inch length of yarn along the long edge of the cardboard, wind yarn around the cardboard for about 100 wraps. Keep the yarn bunched up in one spot, as much as possible. Tie a secure knot with the two ends of the 6-inch length of yarn and cut the ends of wrapped yarn opposite the tied side. Trim your pompom to get a nice round look. Use the yarn you tied your pompom with to secure it to Paddy’s toque.

If you need more pompom help, just google them. There are lots of tutorials all over the internet.

As we mentioned before, the monkey itself is the brain-child of Anita Wilschut and the pattern can be found at  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jacobus   It's a great design. (And, no, we don't get a kick-back for saying that. It's just the truth.)

If you'd like to download a .PDF of A Toque for Paddy, just click here. We're working on more PaddyWear. You can find our pattern for his backpack here.

Paddy’s Toque Pattern Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2012

You're welcome to use our pattern for your own amusement and if you want to sell Paddy Toques (and good for you if you find a market for them!) feel free to do that as well. However, please don't reproduce the pattern for distribution in any form. Oh, and as with all our designs, please be sure to give us credit. That's only fair.