Snowday

Things feel grim. It’s cold, it’s dark, and very bad things are happening in the world. I’m writing this in January of 2026, just days after masked vigilantes masquerading as law enforcement murdered a woman in the street while she was on her way home from dropping her kid off at school. I’ve spent the last week watching terrible men do awful things and listening as my country’s government cheered them on and promised them immunity.

This isn’t ok, I’m not ok, none of us are ok. Every decent person I know is horrified and furious and overwhelmed. And we’re looking for ways to help. Because we know damn well this isn’t ok.

And one of the strangest thing about this moment we find ourselves in is that life just keeps going in the background. A man murdered a woman in broad daylight, and I need to fold the laundry. The president has invaded one country, is bombing another, and is threatening a host of others, and I need to take the cat to the vet. My government is actively stripping me and everyone else in this country of our bodily autonomy, and I have to get the car serviced. I’m grieving for my country and for the relationships I had with people I thought I respected but who turned out to be ok with what’s happening, and I need to make dinner.

We’re exhausted, and that makes everything harder. And that’s intentional. Exhausted people don’t fight back. So as silly as it seems, I’m calling a snowday. I’m making myself put my phone down and doing something soothing with my hands and making something beautiful. And I’m doing it so that I can get up tomorrow and keep trying. Because I’m not letting these assholes win.

So take care of yourself. And then go fight. Fuck ICE.

General information

This delightfully detailed pattern walks you through every detail of creating this lovely hat.

Skills & scope

This is very nearly all stockinette in the round, which I find to be some of the most soothing knitting in the world. You’ll start with a turned hem (don’t worry, I’ll talk you through it), knit the hat, then embroider it.

And of course I’ll tell you exactly how to do the embroidery. There are nine pages of general embroidery info (so even if you’ve never embroidered on your knitting before, you’ll be able to do this). I walk you stitch by stitch through the two snowflakes I did, and I also tell you how to make your own snowflake designs, because every snowflake is unique!

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The hat comes in four sizes (78, 90, 102, and 114 stitch cast ons) and is written for five gauges (from four to six stitches per inch in half stitch increments).

That means you can use just about any weight of yarn from fingering up through worsted, and there will be a size to fit pretty much anyone’s head.

The hat in the pictures took about 150 yards of an aran-weight yarn at 4 stitches per inch, plus about 20 yards of yarn for the embroidery.

If you’re making a larger size or using thinner yarn, 200 yards for the knitting and 30 for the embroidery is a safer bet.

You’ll also want a piece of scrap yarn at least three feet long.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a solid fabric with your chosen yarn, plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker).