Super Easy Christmas Toque

Yesterday we had our Homeschool Christmas party, we had soooooooo much fun ..... we exchanged gifts, played games, the kids were taken on a sled ride (a calf sled pulled behind a quad - not really sure who enjoys those more .... the kids or the Dad that drives the quad, lol).

Anyway, I had decided a while ago (before the party was planned), that I wanted to make a friend of mine a mitten and scarf set - the mittens I made were the double thick ones that I've been making lately, and the scarf was going to be woven on my Tia Rigid Heddle loom (this loom has definitely been worth the $3 I spent for it ˚Ü˚).  Three days before the Homeschool Christmas party, I decided that this set needed a toque to go with it - I couldn't find a pattern for a really easy/quick toque, soooooooooo, I came up with my own pattern (which I'm sharing here ˚Ü˚) ...... my friend gave me a beautiful ceramic mug (it has blues, purples and a bit of cream colouring all over it) and a jar of Peppermint Flavoured Mocha drink mix - which I'm enjoying, right now, as I'm sharing this blog entry, lol.  ˚Ü˚

Super Easy Christmas Toque

Materials needed:

• worsted weight yarn
• 4.5 mm circular needle (minimum 40" long for magic loop)
• darning needle

Directions:

• with white, cast on 100 sts, divide these stitches for magic loop, so, 50 on each side.
• mark the beginning of the round, and work a K2, P2 rib for 3" (being careful not to twist your stitches when your knitting in the round).
• when the 3" of ribbing are completed, change to blue yarn and knit in the round until piece measure 8" long (this is measured from the cast on edge to the stitches that are on your needles).
• begin decreases as follows:
• *knit 8, knit 2 together - repeat from *, (you should end each decrease round on a knit 2 together)
• knit 90 stitches
• *knit 7, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 80 stitches
• *knit 6, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 70
• *knit 5, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 60
• *knit 4, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 50
• *knit 3, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 40
• *knit 2, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 30
• *knit 1, knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 20
• *knit 2 together - repeat from *
• knit 10
• cut yarn, leaving a 10" tail for weaving in, take darning needle (thread it with the yarn you cut) and run it through the 10 stitches remaining on your needles, pull tight to close the hole.  Run your needle through those same 10 stitches, again (this really secures those stitches).  Now, push the needle through the center, where the hole was (you're taking your needle from the outside (public side) of the toque to the inside (non public side) of the toque).  Finish off as usual (meaning, weave in the rest of the tail - I like to weave in a lot of the tail, so, if it starts to come apart, I have yarn to work with in order to fix it).
• Make sure to weave in any ends from the cast on edge and where you switched yarn from ribbing to stockinette stitch.
• Last step ..... make a pom pom, using the same colour of yarn that was used for the ribbing and attach to the top of the toque.

Here's a picture of the whole set that I made for my friend - she absolutely loved it: