Astrum Beret : : A knitting pattern

I bought this fabulous wool boucle from Yarntopia Treasures and I knew it was destined to be a beret. It’s knitted top down to use lovely neat yarn over increases as a feature of the pattern, resulting in an asterix of sorts.

So here’s how to do it…

Materials:

Aprox. 230 yards of sport weight wool

The beret is knit in a round, so, you need whatever needles you use to knit on the round in a size 4mm (US size 6) (i.e. a set of 4mm dpns, 2 circular size 4 needles, 1 long circular size 4mm needle whichever you feel comfortable with. )

Gauge:

aprox 5 stitches per inch. I used a looser gauge as the boucle is more effective when not so closely knit. However, if you aren’t using boucle, use a thicker yarn and aim for the same gauge.

Abbreviations

CO Cast on

K Knit

P Purl

M1 Increse one stitch in last knitted stitch

YO yarn over

SKP Slip the next stitch knit-wise onto right hand needle, knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch.

2x2 Rib knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches

St Stitches

Rnd round

I knit this with one long circular and cast on with figure 8 magic loop for a neater start. If you haven’t done this before you can find instructions here, or you can just cast on and join the round in your usual way.

Begin! …

CO 4 stitches

Knit one round even.

Next round: increase one stitch in every stitch (8 st). Repeat this step on the next round (16 st)

Place a marker at the start of the round

K1 M1 K7 M1 K1 M1 K7 M1

*K2 M1 rep from * to end of round (30 st)

• K one Rnd even

*K3 M1 rep from * to end of round (40 st)

• K one Rnd even

*K4 YO rep from * to end of round (50 st)

• K 2 Rnds even

*K5 YO rep from * to end of round (60 st)

• K2 Rnds even

*K6 YO rep from * to end of round (70 st)

• K2 Rnds even

Repeat this pattern, increasing 1 stitch before the YO each time and knitting 2 even rounds after each increase round.

Stop repeats after you complete *K14 YO rep from * to end of round (150 st)

-End of the increase pattern

K 5 Rnds even (you should still have 150 st)

-The decreases begin here

K13 SKP

K12 SKP (130 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K11 SKP

K10 SKP (110 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K9 SKP

K8 SKP (90 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K1 K2tog, K45, K2tog K to the end of the round (88 St)

Work 2x2 rib for 1 inch (or desired band width)

Loosely cast off (try the stretchy Russian Cast off) and sew in the tails of yarn.

Now all that’s left is to block it.

This pattern is far from perfect, so, if you have any questions, corrections or suggestions please feel free to leave me a comment.