by Signe S. Simonsen

While I was living in London, England, I saw the big grey squirrels for the first time. Apparently they've sort of taken over over there.

One of the first times I met them, there was a whole gang of them. It was in a church yard and they were quite aggressively demanding my sandwich of me. So aggressively, actually, that I had to leave.

After that, the little red squirrels of my home town became one of the little familiar things I missed, when I was feeling nostalgic.

I've been living back in my home town -- Copenhagen, Denmark, for years and years now, but spotting one of the little red squirrels still makes me smile.

The other day I was sitting on a bus on a busy street, watching the hustle and bustle of city life when I looked up over the wall of a church yard and saw one of the little red, bushy tailed fellows holding an acorn and sitting in the branches of a pine tree. I instantly had the idea for this hat -- and a big smile on my face.

SIZE
Child[Adult Small, Adult Large]

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Circumference: 17.25[17.25, 20] inches
Height: 7[8.5, 8.5] inches
Note: Choose a size with 2-3 inches of negative ease.

MATERIALS
Yarn
Quince & Co. Finch [100% American wool; 221 yd/202 m per 50g skein];
[A] Parsley: 1 skein
[B] Iceland: 1 skein
[C] Gingerbread: 1 skein
[D] Twig: 1 skein
[E] Bark: 1 skein
Note: Hat uses less than half a skein each of A and B, and less than 10gm each of the other colors.

Recommended needle size
[always use a needle size that gives you the gauge listed below -- every knitter's gauge is unique]
One 16 length-inch US #2/2.75mm circular needle
One 16 length-inch US #3/3.25mm circular needle
US #3/3.25mm needles

Notions
Stitch marker
Yarn needle

GAUGE
25 sts/33 rounds = 4 inches in charted colorwork pattern with larger needles, after blocking

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

The number one rule when knitting with two colors at the same time, is to continually stretch out the stitches on the right-hand needle. This way your knitting never puckers and ends up being too tight. Elasticity is an important factor when knitting a hat.

The charted pattern has fairly long floats (the longest is 10 sts), which some people find neccesary to catch or lock on the WS of the work. You can do this if you want to, but it is not necessary as they are unlikely to catch on anything.

DIRECTIONS
Ribbing
Using Color A and the smaller needle, cast on 108[108, 126]. Place marker and join for working in the round, being careful not to twist.

Ribbing round: [K3, p3] around.

Work ribbing as set for .75[1, 1] inches.

Body
Change to larger needle.

Body round: Work chart 6[6, 7] times around.

Child size only: Work as set until row 28 of the chart is complete, then work rows 38-45.

Adult sizes: Work as set until row 45 of chart is complete.

Crown
Work crown using color A. Break all other colors of yarn.

As circumference gets too small to work on circular needle, change to DPNs/Magic Loop/2 circulars as desired.

Round 1: [SSK, k7] around. 96[96, 112] sts.

Rounds 2 and 3: Knit all sts.

Round 4: [SSK, k6] around. 84[84, 98] sts

Rounds 5 and 6: Knit all sts.
Round 7: [SSK, k5] around. 72[72, 84] sts.

Round 8: Knit all sts.

Round 9: [SSK, k4] around. 60[60, 70] sts.

Round 10: Knit all sts.

Round 11: [SSK, k3] around. 48[48, 56] sts

Round 12: Knit all sts.

Round 13: [SSK, k2] around. 36[36, 44] sts.

Round 14: Knit all sts.

Round 15: [SSK, k1] around. 24[24, 30] sts.

Round 16: [K2tog] around. 12[12, 15] sts.

Round 17: [K2tog] 6[6, 7] times, k0[0, 1]. 6[6, 8] sts.

Remove marker and break yarn, leaving a tail. Draw tail through remaining sts and pull tight.

FINISHING
Block. Weave in all ends.

Signe (pronounced ['si nø]) lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, with her husband and 2 kids. Years ago she left all traditional career ambitions behind, because she realised she'd rather be knitting. Now she works as an independent knitwear designer.

She is currently working on her very first knitting book -- a colorful book of kids knits, which she plans to self-publish in 2014.

Signe can be found on Ravelry and on her blog.