Fall is my favorite season of the year. It's the season where we finally put on our beautiful knitted garments: scarves, sweaters, mittens, hats. I tend to be cold easily, especially from the head and sometimes the weather is not cold enough to put on a hat but cold enough that I want to keep my head covered in some way.

I used to love sweaters with a hood exactly for that reason: a hood is a great compromise between a hat and nothing at all. But as much as I love hoods, I don't have an entire wardrobe of hoods. So I thought, there must be a way to get the same practical aspects of a hood without one, and I came up with this idea: a knitted hood, without the sweater. A simple lace pattern doesn't fight with the soft color changes of the Noro yarn and it's a quick knit!

SIZE
One

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Length: 21.5 inches
Width: 12 inches

MATERIALS
Yarn
Noro Vintage[64% wool, 24% silk, 12% angora; 109yd/100m per 50g skein]; color: #5; 3 skeins 

Recommended needle size
[always use a needle size that gives you the gauge listed below -- every knitter's gauge is unique]
1 24-inch US #10/6mm circular needle
1 spare circular needle, any length, US #10/6mm or smaller

Tools
Stitch markers
Smooth waste yarn
Yarn needle

GAUGE
16 sts/22 rows = 4 inches in stockinette st

PATTERN NOTES
[Knitty's list of standard abbreviations and techniques can be found here.]

In the pattern, a provisional CO is worked by casting on using waste yarn and working several rows before switching to the working yarn. If desired, another provisional CO method may be used.

yo2: Yarn over twice. (Wrap yarn twice, from front to back, over right needle).
In this pattern, a yo2 is worked in each pattern repeat of Round 7 of the Neck Chart. When working into the yo2 on the next few rows, work as follows: Insert needle knitwise into yo2, wrap yarn twice around needle, draw through yo2 and drop yo2 from left needle. You will have formed a new yo2.

Instructions for grafting can be found here.

Chart: Click for the Hood chart and the Neck chart, Edge charts and chart key; each will print on a single letter-sized page.

DIRECTIONS

HOOD
Place last 26 sts worked on hold on waste yarn. From this point, hood is worked back and forth in rows over remaining 52 sts.

Set-up Row 1 [RS]: CO 5 sts, work Row 1 of Right Edge Chart over these 5 sts, place marker, work Row 1 of Hood Chart.

Set-up Row 2 [WS]: CO 6 sts, p these 6 sts (counts as Row 2 of Left Edge Chart), place marker, p to end (counts as Row 2 of Hood Chart and Right Edge Chart).

Set-up Row 3 [RS]: Work next row of Right Edge chart to first marker, slip marker, work next row of Hood Chart to next marker, slip marker, work next row of Left Edge Chart over remaining sts.
This row sets pattern for hood.

Continue in pattern until Row 55 of Hood Chart is complete. You will have just worked Row 7 of Right and Left Edge Charts. 62 sts.

Break yarn, leaving a tail approx. 1yd long. Slip first 31 sts to spare needle. Fold work in half with WS together. Graft sides of hood together with RS facing.

UPPER NECK EDGE
Place 26 held sts at top of neck section on needle.

With RS facing, pick up and k 1 st in space between edge of hood and beginning of held sts, k all held sts, pick up and k 1 st in space between end of held sts and edge of hood. 28 sts.

P 1 row.

Work Rows 1-9 of Upper Neck Edge Chart. 23 sts.

Loosely BO all sts. Fold work along Row 7 to WS, and sew edge to WS of work, taking care not to sew too tightly. Sew side edges of edging to CO edges of right and left hood edging.

LOWER NECK
Remove waste yarn from CO edge and place resulting 78 live sts on needle. If necessary, redistribute sts so that beginning of round is positioned between first and last live sts of CO edge. Join yarn and place marker to indicate beginning of round.
K 1 round.

Next Round: [K2tog, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, ssk] to end.
Next Round: [P3, k7, p3] to end.
Repeat these 2 rounds six times more. Loosely BO all sts.

FINISHING
Weave in ends and block, pinning out points of hood edging.

Isabelle is a French speaker from Quebec, Canada. She has been knitting and designing regularly since high school and recently started writing and publishing her own patterns.

She works full time for an international development organization and during her free time you can find her knitting or spending time with her little angel, Marilou, 18 months. She blogs here.