The Notorious Kevin McCallister Moose Hat Pattern

A few years ago, I got the idea to make a recreation of the toque (or beanie for those of you south of the border) that Kevin wears in the movie Home Alone. I wasn’t sure anyone would recognize it, but I thought it would be neat to have. I found a hand-knitting pattern online for a similar hat, but I wanted to make it on the machine. At the time, I figured out a pattern, knitted it on the Superba machine in a pretty heavy DK yarn (which really pushed the limits of the machine, might I add) and made some notes on it on Ravelry. I liked it, but I didn’t feel like keeping it, so I decided, “What the heck! I’ll put it on Etsy.”

That hat sold relatively quickly. I was tickled, since my shop at the time was not very popular, and I had only recently pivoted from selling baby items to all kinds of other things. And then something funny happened. People started messaging me to ask if I could make them one, too. So I made a couple more. And then a couple more. People wanted adult sizes, and child sizes, and everything in between. This was back in 2019. I soon figured out that I could not keep making them in the same yarn without undue stress to my machine, so I had to find a different, lighter-weight yarn. I did, after must painstaking research and sampling of different yarns. This has since evolved a couple of times as well, since my fav yarn supplier has closed down.

Then, during 2020, this particular hat just exploded in popularity. I could barely keep up with the demand while everyone in my house was home, working and going to school during the P-word that we don’t speak of. Around that time I had also come into possession of a Brother 940, and I decided to change how I was knitting parts of the hat to make it both faster and easier to produce. I have now made so many of these hats that I could probably knit them in my sleep, and I can get one knitted (minus the finishing of course) in about 20 minutes.

Why am I telling you this? Well as they are a seasonal product, I sell a lot of them between September and December, and hardly any the rest of the year. And I feel terrible about not being able to get one out to everyone who wants one each year, but that’s also a really busy time of the year with kids going back to school, and sports, and all of the things that come along at that time of year, so sometimes I can’t. And I also know that there are a lot of machine knitters out there in the world who wouldn’t mind a little extra income (hello, I am one!) and/or who just really want to make their own Kevin hats.

So, I have decided to release the pattern to the world, for sale on my website and Etsy shop. I am not a professional pattern writer, of course, so this is a bit of a departure, but I’ve included everything you need to make this, including the chart/punch card SVG file so you can punch or cut your own punch card or input the pattern electronically, as well as the chart and punch card images for the crown shaping, and a full set of instructions with pictures. I could also make some videos about the process as well if that would be helpful to anyone. It includes 4 sizes, from child to adult, and if you do pick it up I would love to see your finished hats! If you have any questions or feedback on the pattern I am also all ears.

I hope you like knitting these as much as I do! Cheers.