knit and designed on the train – sometimes when i woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. to continue the tradition of the smoke ring pattern, ben and i decided that this should be a free pattern too. i like the idea of free patterns for the blog that are specific to time and place.

i don’t know the rules, but i don’t think that this hat increases enough to be considered a real tam, but i couldn’t resist the alliteration of the name and it does have many tam-like qualities.

so, without further ado i present the train tam:

Train Tam

– needles: size 7 (4.5 mm) 16 in. circular and set of double-pointed needles
– worsted weight wool – for this pattern, I prefer a nice stiff wool with a bit of roughness to it, when i made a sample in the small size, i used donegal tweed and i can imagine peace fleece being nice also
– gauge: 4 ½ – 4 ¾ st./in.
– seen on a 22 in. head, knit to 5 ½ inches before decreases began

cast 90 stitches onto the circular needle
join, being careful not to twist
k1, p1 for at least an inch

increases (adding 9 stitches each row):
row 1: *k9, kfb*
row 2: k
row 3: *k10, kfb*
row 4: k
row 5: *k11, kfb*

117 stitches total

continue in stockingnet stitch until the entire piece measures
5 in. for adult small (4 yr on up) – 21 in. head
5 ½ to 6 in. for adult medium – 22 in. head

decreases (minus 9 stitches each row):
when your circular becomes uncomfortable, change to using your dpns
row 1: *k11, k2tog*
row 2: k
row 3: *k10, k2tog*
row 4: k

continue in this manner, decreasing every other row 6 times (63 stitches left)

then decrease every row
row 1: *k5, k2tog* – 54 st.
row 2: *k4, k2tog* – 45 st.
row 3: *k3, k2tog* – 36 st.
row 4: *k2, k2tog* – 27 st.
row 5: *k1, k2tog* – 18 st.
row 6: *k2tog*

you have nine stitches left

cut your yarn with a 6-8 in. tail, thread it onto a tapestry needle and pull through the remaining stitches, pull inside of the hat, knot and secure by sewing the ends in

ENJOY! and go ride a train if you haven’t yet.

p.s. i also added it to ravelry for all you ravelers – although i can’t figure out how to mark it as a free pattern.

p.p.s. here’s the size small one i did using donegal tweed that was gifted by my friend laurie on our way through seattle and some mountain colors mill end bought at the dye shop while in mt. sorry for the unmodeled pic, but my head is not size small.