Valley Yarns 40th Anniversary Centuria Tam Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns 40th Anniversary Centuria Tam

What Is Being Made

The Centuria Tam is a knitted hat designed by Franklin Habit as part of Valley Yarns' Guest Designer Series #7. This intermediate-level project creates a perky, beret-style tam with a finished width of 11 inches across the top after blocking, sized to fit adult head sizes 20 to 23 inches (small to medium). The tam combines historical inspiration with contemporary knitting techniques, drawing design elements from a nineteenth-century octagonal counterpane featured in Godey's Lady's Book from 1874.

Techniques Used

The Centuria Tam employs several advanced knitting techniques that make it suitable for intermediate-level knitters:

• Top-down construction: The hat is worked from the crown downward, beginning with a small cast-on and expanding outward in rounds
• Seamless, in-the-round knitting: The entire hat is worked circularly using circular needles, eliminating the need for seaming
• Lace patterning: Decorative lace elements are incorporated throughout the design, featuring yarn overs and decreases that create openwork texture

Stitches and Stitch Techniques

The pattern utilizes fundamental knitting stitches combined in strategic ways to build the tam's structure and decorative elements. Key stitches include:

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The primary fabric base worked in the round
• Knit and purl stitches: Combined to create textured sections, including purl columns that provide visual interest
• Yarn overs (yo): Create the openwork lace elements characteristic of the design
• Decreases: Including knit two together (k2tog) and slip-slip-knit variations (sl1-k2tog-psso) that shape the crown and create lace motifs
• Make one (m1) increases: Used to expand stitches where needed for shaping

Materials and Gauge

The Centuria Tam is designed to use one skein of Valley Yarns Huntington Hand-Dyed yarn by Lorna's Laces, which provides 436 yards of 75% Superwash Merino Wool and 25% Nylon fiber content in a 100-gram weight. The pattern calls for working with two strands of yarn held together, which creates a thicker fabric and faster gauge.

Needles required are two US size 4 (3.50 mm) circular needles measuring 24 inches in length, or the size needed to achieve the specified gauge. The working gauge is 5 stitches and 8 rounds per inch in stockinette stitch when worked in the round with the doubled yarn.

Additional materials needed include a removable stitch marker for tracking pattern repeats and marking pins for blocking the finished tam to its specified measurements.

Design Inspiration and Construction Details

Designer Franklin Habit drew inspiration from knitting history when creating this anniversary pattern, specifically referencing an octagonal counterpane design from Godey's Lady's Book published in 1874—exactly one century before Valley Yarns (WEBS) opened its doors. The tam translates the striking combination of texture and lace from that historical piece into a wearable hat suitable for autumn weather or celebratory occasions.

The construction begins with a four-stitch cast-on using the long-tail method, worked without turning to begin working in the round immediately. The crown develops through strategic increases and lace pattern rounds, with the design featuring octagonal shaping that echoes the historical counterpane inspiration. The pattern includes detailed abbreviations and round-by-round instructions to guide knitters through the lace sequences and shaping.