You’re a bad-ass (arse) snowflake? Need to look fashionable yet practical, during zombie apocalypse? Here’s the hat for you.

Can be made with any DK yarn leftovers or 5 ply guernsey (sport weight) yarn - but check your tension/gauge to be certain.

Want to mash up traditional British knitting styles Fair Isle and Guernsey? This is the hat for you. Uses traditional guernsey cast on and cast off - knitted in the round - with Fair Isle style skull and snowflake.

One size only but if you need to go bigger, there is a note in the pattern suggesting where best to put your extra stitches. Or else, you can go up a needle size or two because this is knitted on 2.25mm needles - which makes for a warm fabric but also maybe a tighter gauge than usual with DK/Guernsey yarn.

Pattern does not include a tutorial, so here’s the Channel Island cast on tutorial I invariably return to, when I forget how to do it (it’s essentially a long tail cast on with the tail doubled, coupled with a YO so you cast on 2 sts at once ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-0QOubXQ8

There is also a clear explanation in Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book, here.

Pattern gives two alternate cast offs. Image of white hat shows the 3 needle cast off on the right side (Option 1) and images of the black hat show a more straightforward gathered cast off (Option 2).