So this is a hat based on a pattern available at Modnoyevyazanie.ru, pattern Kosa S Tenyu, or Braid with a Shadow.
Here it is, being reluctantly modeled by its intended recipient.
When you get a typical pattern off Ravelry, it usually comes in a multiple of sizes with a graph and a video and different yarn weights. When you get to a Russian site, the pattern often assumes a certain amount of knowledge.
Subtractions: with a cable of 15 stitches, add and subtract stitches between reductions and you can close the hat beautifully.
Modnoye vyazanie
Nope, I didn’t mess this translation up. That’s what they have written. Have fun with that.
So, I had to fiddle with it a little bit to come up with a guide rather than a pattern.
Disclaimer: I have read several patterns on the site and the moderators repeatedly state that they love releasing new patterns but would love the credit, so I want to stress that I do not claim any copyright or credit for the pattern below. It’s a cute hat, and the moderators of the site clearly want as many people as possible to knit it.
For this pattern, I used 1 skein of Madeline Tosh ASAP. I also should mention that technically it’s not a classic Russian hat, because most Russian knitted hats are designed to have the elastic part of the pattern to be turned up like so.
But I only wanted to use 1 skein of that yarn, so I didn’t do the longer elastic. Because ASAP yarn is very bulky, my hat doesn’t look exactly like theirs. I am a little fuzzy on the exact weight of yarn they are using, but I can tell you it’s a four ply and probably worsted, because they are using 5mm needles for the body, which corresponds to US 8 or UK 6.
The basics of the pattern hinge on a cable, which must be divided into 3 parts. For example, the hat in the picture above uses an 18 stitch cable. I used 12. You can do 9 or 15 or whatever, as long as you can divide it by 3.
For the hat in the picture
Cast on 94 on US size 3 circular needle
Place stitch marker, join in the round.
Knit 1 purl 1 until you are happy with the length of your elastic
Lots of calculations here which boil down to increasing the size of a hat by about 40-50% while making sure that the final number of stitches can be evenly divided by the cable size. The site states to increase this particular hat to 144 stitches.
For my hat
Cast on 56 on US size 9 circular needle
Place stitch marker, join in the round.
Knit 1 purl 1 until elastic measures 2.5 inches
Switch to size 11 needles and knit, increasing 1 stitch every 14 stitches to total of 60.
Now the adventure begins. Once I switched to larger size needles and knitted a row of increases, I continued to knit for 5 rows to make sure cables didn’t twist my elastic.
Start cable. We are doing 12 stitches, so divided by 3, this gives us 4 stitches per section.
*Place section 1 (4 stitches) onto a cable needle, making sure the cable needs is in front of the work.
Knit next section. (4 stitches)
Transfer the stitches off the cable needle onto the left needle. Knit those stitches.
Knit the next section. (4 stitches.)
*Repeat to the end of the row.
Knit 5 rows.
*Knit section 1. (4 stitches)
Place the next section (4 stitches) onto the cable needle making sure the cable needle is in the back of the work. If you hold the needle in the front of the work, you end up with a lovely spiral design, but you won’t get the crisscrossing cables.
Knit the next section (4 stitches)
Knit the stitches on the cable needle.
*Repeat to the end of the row.
Knit 5 rows.
Tada. Restart the pattern and knit as long as you want. I ended up doing 4 sections. The original hat follows the same pattern, but she is doing sections of 6 stitches and as you can see from the picture, she has a lot more of them.
To finish the hat: after the four sections, I decreased one stitch in the middle of the section 1 for each cable. The next row I decreased 1 stitch in section 2. The next row, in section 3. That gave me 45 stitches. Then I knitted 1, decreased 1, bringing the total to 30 stitches. At this point I did one more cable cross, just to maintain the pattern, with my sections being only 2 stitches wide. Then I proceeded to decrease until I ran out of hat.
The pompom was purchased on Amazon. There are a number of options for faux fur, but I went for this one.
That is a serious pompom. ? Beautiful hat!
Love the hat & well done figuring out the stitch count! Btw, I heart Madtosh yarn.
Great post! So much different STUFF in the world. Russian hat instructions and all the skill to make it work in US culture. Forever love Grandma&Mom messing with expensive yarn in Nevada books. Really made me smile.
I love the color! I once tried to knit a scarf but it didnt work with my patience…. it is still somewhere in my house on hold.
I looked at the pattern and let google translate it, I hope the english translation is better because in dutch this pattern involved facial treatment in row 12,14 and 16. I must admit being somewhat experienced knitter I could probably figure it out.
I would be game for a facial treatment during knitting! Wine, facial, knit!
That’s gorgeous!
That yarn is fabulous, and the hat is lovely. I love the colors.
Totally agree! It is beautiful!
oooo, love it! and the colors on that yarn are gorgeous, and the white pompom works perfectly!
Gorgeous. Love the twisty cable pattern. Thank you so much for translating the pattern!
You do such lovely work and I love the color. You’re giving me the guts to take another stab at serious knitting. I crochet with the best of them. I’m confident I can do anything with crochet. But so far w knitting I can mostly do it evenly, I can start and I can stop but that’s it. And if I screw up I have no idea how to fix it short of yanking it all out and I’ve no clue about reading and applying knitting patterns.
Best hint – rescue lines, get a length of yarn in a different colour to your knit, hold it against your right hand needle, and knit over it. I can’t think of a good way to describe it, but what you are doing is putting the yarn through your stitches so if you have to rip your knitting back you don’t have to go all the way to the start, because the rescue line will hold all the stitches in the row. Put one in whenever you are about to start a bit you’re not sure about or just every few rows. You can pull each one out after you’ve put a new one in.
Oh thank you Jazzlet for that rescue tip! I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had to restart a project when I couldn’t catch all the stitches as I am pulling them out.
Beautiful hat either way. I do prefer yours if I’m making it, because I am lazy and yours would knit up faster. I tend tp play with my patterns/projects anyway. I almost always need to change the yarn type (sensitive to wool and alpaca). I also have the bad habit of noticing the possibilities of “plain” pieces.
My current project, a crocheted wrap made with 4 strands of fine cotton yarn, should be all one color. I am doing it in wide stripes. I can also see it done ombre, by replacing one strand of the 4 every one or two rows. (I bought black, white and gray to do that one.)
The “handwork” helps me keep my “hands working”. I have arthritis and carpal tunnel, so there’s a balancing act going on there.
Oh, Lady Alvina says “Hi”. Actually, she said “ghbyj “, but I am translating. She is growing into her name nicely. This is a dinner chair. She can touch the top edge with her nose…
(I hope the picture works. Haven’t done it this way before.(
Well the picture came through, anyway.
Sorry.
Is Lady Alvina a Maine Coon or a Ragdoll?
Okay. I give in. My next project Is learning to knit. Those hats are just beautiful! I love the yarn AND cable knitting patterns (or whatever that’s called).
Ow wow. I am in total awe. Just finishing a shawl with one 6-stitch crisscross cable between the garter stitch body and a lace edging, and that was challenging enough. I can’t imagine working that many cables!
Thank you for explaining the process and deconstructing the pattern for those of us with less experience.
I understand how to attach the pompom . . . ?
I am with the pompom lady. All I can say is , pretty color and love the confident white pompom.
So glad you had a fun project and you made a one of a kind hat.
Cheers
Ooooo!
That is so beautiful – that yarn is luscious. And it’s so well chosen for that pattern.
In terms of the Russian pattern… that’s so much closer to how I understand knitting? Most knitting patterns seem to try and pull a lot of the math and the spaciality out of knitting, which I find frustrating. I’m kind of in love.
DARLING!!! Thanks for the photo and pattern!!!
You’re blog literally got me into knitting. You had me at your yarn-porn posts, the skeins are gorgeous and the different projects sound fun. So, I found a class through my County recreation center and went to knitting 101 on Monday. I can cast on, knit and purl, yay! I started reading this post; love the hat pics and in the banner it says ‘knit 1, purl 1’ so I thought, oh great, maybe I can re-create this soon! But then I got to the true directions and realized this is way beyond novice, never-held-needles-before beginner. But a woman can dream 🙂 Thanks for the inspirations!
I thought that looked like Mad Tosh. Even now after all these years, every time I see something that photographs like the yarn is glowing, it’s almost always Madeline Tosh.
Beautiful hat !! I’m quite intimidated by knitting. I do crochet however. Well done! love all your books. Thanks for the time and effort it takes to put them together.
Love it; knit tons of hats and thanks for the link to the Amazon faux pom poms.
Beautiful hat and pom-pom! When I read the translation, I was thinking “oh, boy! The joys of the differences between US knitting, European knitting, and Russian knitting.”
One of these days, if I ever pick up knitting needles again, I want to try out the honeycomb stitch. It is a beautiful aran panel stitch that is used in a lot of wool sweaters.
Gorgeous! Thanks so much for converting it for us – and making it more idiot-proof. I am definitely used to American patterns that “babysit” me!
Love the hat! Those colors go well with my favorite hockey team! Go Sharks!
reaction to hat pic: OMG awesome hat! much pom, such blue, wow!
reaction to words: whut?
I can’t knit but love getting knitted stuff as I am a crafter so I know the work involved. I even have a knitted cat from the ‘Best In Show: knit your own cat’ book that my great aunt made for me.
Wow! Love it! I adore the giant pom pom. Great choice. I’m going to save this for when I have time again to knit (baby and 3 year old make it kinda tough. happy to just be able to write again). Thank you for sharing!
I love the hat and the White Pom Pom is perfect.
On another note. It seems like the new Blog format has awfully dark headers. The old format seemed cosier. Or is that just me?
1) that hat is adorable and the color. Wow. The color.
2) the fact that there are different ways to knit based on region is kind of scary.
I do not knit except for the most basic designs. (Knit one, pearl one). Aside from reading, which is #1 on my list, cross stitch, crochet, dough art, and putting various things together with a glue gun have consumed most of my hobby life. Since this hat is seriously adorable I would give it a try except, I’m old, somewhat visually impaired, and with the various aches and pains aging brings. I’m also realistic enough to know it takes years and much practice to become as proficient and talented as you are.
Perhaps we, your most loyal fans, can convince a you to open a side business or, even better, a contest. Perhaps a few times a year, you could knit something beautiful, and allow us to enter to win! No pressure of course. ?❤️❤️❤️
Wow. You more experienced knitters do beautiful work. I thought of you when I read this article on http://www.phys.org. The article is called The Science of Knitting, Unpicked. It was posted on Mar 6, 2019.
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-science-unpicked.html?fbclid=IwAR3yGxT0RYXMmUE3jRNaNvaga3WJWRSQljuY2WQcqb38eOAfePF61ujMmuw
I always liked crochet better than knitting, but maybe I will try to do better than “knit 1, purl 1” in the future.
Thank you for showing your work.
OMG!!! My sister in law is a physicist AND a knitter! I immediately forwarded to her. Thank you so much for the link.
Cool hat! I have stacks of knitting patterns from the mid 1900s, once belonging to my mom and grandma, and even though they are in English, they are similar in that the instructions are very spare with much interpretation (and past experience) needed. They remind me of old cookbooks: “take two chickens, pluck, put in pot….”
This hat is gorgeous!
Reading about your knitting projects has inspired me…I’m taking a class for beginners next week. Someday, (probably many years from now?) I hope to make something as beautiful.
Thank you for all of your books!!
In Canada we’d call that a touque 🙂
Ilona and BDH friends,
I think you would enjoy the free hat pattern (fairly simple and cabled) on the great
knitting blog, “Knitting Nuances” by the excellent Knitting teacher Laura Cunitz.
It is in her latest newsletter. I’m a real fan of using 2 circulars instead of 5 DPNs.
Hope this brings you lots of good fun
I meant to say that your hat is really beautiful and so is the hair! Got distracted and thought I had started with that.
Hey Ilona and everyone else –
wonderful comments. I love knitters!!! Great patterns. Another fast one (not free, sorry) is the brioche topper by Laura Nelkin on ravelry (which my spellcheck tried to change to revelry – huh).
If you are looking to learn the brioche stitch, I found this to be a much simpler way to introduce yourself to it. Love your blog!!!
The reluctant model has beautiful hair and great taste in beer.
So cute! What an adorable hat!