I remember the first time I held a ball of Karoo Moon Handspun in my hands. That was the name back in 2013 – Karoo Moon Handspun. Or was it Karoo Moon Homespun? I honestly don’t know. These days it is called Karoo Moon fullMOON. It was the first time that I had a handspun yarn in my hands, and I was mesmerized by the variation in thickness. Thin bits. Thick bits. Overspun bits. Underspun bits. It baffled me and I immediately fell in love with the perfect imperfection in the yarn.

I couldn’t wait to do something with it; my first project was a beanie for my son. There was nothing special about the pattern; it was a plain double crochet beanie.

Ten years later. Ten years in the hands of a mountaineer. That beanie has been worn a lot and it has been through a lot. And it still looks marvelous! It looks slightly felted, but I think that adds to the beauty of it.

Last week he slept over at our place while in Pretoria for business. We were having a nice, relaxed evening in the braai room when he suddenly directed the conversation towards his beanie. It went something like this:

Dries Jnr: Ma, Ma, this beanie…
Me: What about it?
Dries Jnr: This is the only beanie I take up into the mountains. This thing is warm even when it is wet.
Me: It will be, it is genuine Merino wool.
Dries Jnr: whatever the reason, I need another one like this please.

Now show me a mother whose heart won’t melt right there and then. Mine sure did. I immediately weighed the beanie he had on to figure out how much yarn I will need. I opened the Karoo Moon website and he picked colours for two beanies, Fuzzy Orange and Tom.

The moment the yarn got delivered, I wanted to start. Obviously, I was expected to make it exactly like the old one, but I forgot to measure and count. So, I had my daughter-in-law take some measurements, count stitches, and count rows.

After the third tension swatch, I was ready to start working up the beanies.

His beanies were delivered to him today and he loves it. And me? My heart is all warm and fuzzy.

Karoo Moon Beanie Pattern

Requirements

• 200 g Karoo Moon fullMOON (enough for an adult)
• 5.50 mm crochet hook

Abbreviations

• ch – chain
• dc – double crochet
• rnd – round
• ss – slip-stitch
• st(s) – stitch(es)
• tdc – twisted double crochet

Pattern

ch5, ss into the first ch to form a loop, place the tail over the loop and crochet round one into the loop and over the tail.

Round 1:
tdc1, dc11

Round 2:
tdc1, dc1 in the same st, dc2 in each st across, close rnd with ss in tdc: 24 dc.

Round 3:
tdc1, dc2 in the next st, *dc1, dc2 in the next st, rep from * to end of rnd, close rnd with ss in tdc: 36 dc.

Round 4:
tdc1, dc1 in the same st, dc1, *dc2 in the next st, dc1, rep from * to end of rnd, close rnd with ss in tdc: 48 dc.

Round 5:
tdc1, dc2 in the next st, *dc1, dc2 in the next st, rep from * to end of rnd, close rnd with ss in tdc: 60 dc.

Rounds 6 – 19 / 20

tdc1, dc59, close rnd with ss in tdc.

With the first beanie, I could do 20 rounds. With the subsequent ones, I only had enough yarn (estimated) for 19 rounds. Use as much of your yarn as you can. Close the very last round with an invisible join instead of a slip-stitch.

Pull the starting tail to close the chain loop hole and weave the tail away securely. Weave away all the other tails.