My god, it's cold. I was brushing the snow off a windshield & scraped off the better part of a fingernail. Didn't even feel it, my hands were so cold. (Of course I felt it when my hands warmed up!) Hey, where's that blood from?

I finished my last present. A kufi for my brother. If I would have bothered to put up the instructions before, I would have had them available ... but no. So I had to recreate it by staring intently at this summer's kufi.

So here's my notes for those of you intrepid enough to build your own:
p -- purl
k -- knit
O -- yarn over
/ -- knit 2 together
\ -- slip, slip, knit tog slipped stitches
M -- knit 3 together (ie: 2 st decrease - what ever fashion you like)
RT -- Right leaning baby cable (2 stitches)*
*Remember, each letter is a stitch, so even though RT is one notation, it is over 2 stitches.

Lace**:
p k k p p k k k k k p
p R T p p k O M O p ----3
p k k p p k k k k k p
p R T p p O / k \ O p ---1

** a modification of Canada Lace in Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments. I changed the direction of the cable (because I knit right twists faster than I knit left twists) and recentered the stitch order to better work in the round. Read from right to left, bottom to top - like a chart.

Here's what I do:

Cast on 88 stitches on a circular needle. (All of my hats are 88 stitches, so I don't have to guess/remember how many to cast on/decrease. To alter size, change yarn/needles/gauge.)
purl one row;
knit one row;
begin lace pattern over 11 sts 8X & follow for 6 repeats (24 rows);
purl one row, BUT maintain the 8 baby cables (ie. *p9, RT*);
*p2 tog, k6, p1, k2*, rep.;
*p1, k6, p1, RT* rep.;
*p2 tog, k5, k2* rep.;
And so forth, switching to dpns when necessary, until you get to 24 sts remaining.
*p1, RT* rep.;
*k2 tog, k1* rep. 16 stitches left.
Cut yarn w/long tail, draw through remaining stitches tightly & weave in ends.

This makes a kufi on which the lace panels are separated by cables which spiral together at the crown.

I could write this out in idiot-proof directions, but I don't feel like it. There's enough information for most anyone to replicate this if they're so inclined. And more importantly there's enough here for me not to have to rebuild it next time I want to make one.

Mind you, I'm also writing this off the top of my head, after the fact, not as I'm going along, so the directions may be a bit wonky. (I don't see any errors, though it's possible.) But you're a smart knitter; you'll figure it out.