rib top-down hat
I have just put a revised version of this pattern onto the Ravelry website and, because it is free, onto my patterns page on this site.
It is a pattern I first designed for the Let's Knit magazine in 2009, but the magazine didn't offer it as a free download. Several months later, some knitters on Ravelry messaged me and asked me if I planned to offer it as a free pattern.
I no longer had a copy of the magazine, so I copied the pattern text from the Word file I had supplied the magazine, made up a pattern sheet and posted the pattern. A few days later the first person messaged me to say there was an error in how the pattern was structured. I thought I saw the problem and I corrected the mistake. However, several other knitters immediately queried the alteration and the increases. And, at this point, it was added it to my things to look at more carefully pile.
I have finally looked at the pattern more carefully. And it was an interesting exercise. I knitted from the pdf. I quickly realised I had in fact corrected the wrong round of pattern copy. I am so sorry, and I am so grateful for the knitters on Ravelry who kept other knitters on the right track. I should have taken more time and care; it is unforgivable that I didn't. Please accept my sincere apologies for this error.
Doubt and fear are a potent combination, and I started to see a whole host of problems or improvements that could be made to the pattern. I decided to change the increases and their position. I altered the number of increases and their frequency. I looked at when each increase was worked and what stitch was worked into it on the following round. I experimented with different yarns and needle techniques.
I spent hours working on this project over Christmas – only to return to the pattern I had first sent into the magazine. I am sure that the pattern may be improved, but the changes I tried were changes and not necessarily improvements. However, it did suggest to me that this hat pattern is infinitely adaptable. If you would like to change the slant or type of increase or the position or frequency of the dividing columns of rib, it will work and look good.
