Just a plain old hat

After I finished knitting up the Skull Isle Hat and Hutchin, my oldest boy requested a hat, too. He was very specific in what he wanted, a black hat with a double layered brim to keep his ears warm. I asked him if he wanted stripes, or colors, or cables...but no, just a plain old black hat.

Despite its plainness, the hat was pretty fun and easy to knit up -- the perfect project for multiple episodes of Broadchurch. I think it could easily made into a stripey hat.

In the language of the great Elizabeth Zimmermann, here are my pithy directions for this hat.

A Plain Old Hat:

SIZE
This particular hat was knit for a 10-year-old boy, who has the same head circumference as my own, a pretty standard 22 inches. If you want to size up or down, change the needle size accordingly.

YARN
I used a nice standard worsted weight wool, Cascade 220 (220 yd/3.5 oz)

NEEDLES
Size 6 (4 mm) circlular needles with a long cable

KNITTING IT UP

Brim - Using a provisional cast-on technique of your choice, cast on 96 stitches onto a circular needle. Begin a 2 x 2 rib in the round using a magic loop technique. (A 2 x 2 rib is just as it sounds, k2 p2, all the way around.) Continue rib for 15 rounds or about 2 inches. Purl next round. Continue in rib for another 15 rounds, or the same amount of rounds you did before the purl round.

Body - Now fold the provisional cast-on edge toward the inside of the hat, so that the purl row now forms the bottom of the hat. On the next round, knit together the stitch that is on the left-hand needle with one provisional stitch from your cast on row. Keep working the provisional stitches into the stitches on the left-hand needle as you knit all the way around until you have completed the round and there are no more provisional stitches. (Count your stitches to make sure that you still have 96!)

Continue knitting in the round until the hat measures about 6.5 inches from the bottom of the brim.

Crown shaping -
Round 1 - *K14, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 2 and every even round - k all stitches
Round 3 - *K13, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 5 - *K12, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 7 - *K11, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 9 - *K10, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 11 - *K9, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 13 - *K8, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 15 - *K7, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round (48 sts)

Round 16 - k
Round 17 - *K6, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 18 - *K5, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 19 - *K4, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 20 - *K3, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 21 - *K2, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 22 - *K1, k2tog, repeat from * to end of round.
Round 23 - *k2tog, repeat from * to end of round. 6 sts remain.

Cut yarn and thread through the last 6 stitches. I like to go through twice, to make it feel more secure. Weave in the tail and fasten off. There -- you've got yourself a new hat!

Another Hat: the Hutchin by Brooklyn Tweed

Despite the fingering weight yarn and the cabling, this might be my quickest knit to date! I cast on a couple of weeks ago and finished Friday, a day late for Mr. Elvy's birthday.

I absolutely love this pattern. I am ambivalent about the yarn. The pattern is Hutchin, by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. The cabling looks complicated but was actually quite easy. The pattern diagram was excellent.

The yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Loft in Birdbook, knit up beautifully. However, it had a tendency to break easily when pulled. I accidentally sat on the tail once and broke all but an inch off the tail, which made it difficult to weave in at the end. Also, when I was tightening up the hole to finish off the crown, the yarn broke, again leaving me with only an inch with which to work. I had to make an ugly knot to have enough yarn to weave into the hat.

All in all, though, this is my favorite hat to date. Eventually, I'd like to make myself one in cream. That will have to wait, as my 10-year-old has also requested a hat. His request is for a black watchman's type hat. You wouldn't know it, but it's somewhat difficult to find a nice quality yarn in black, but that's my next mission.

A little fall knitting: the Skull Isle Hat

My almost 8-year-old requested this hat in these particular colors. I previously knit the same beanie in black and green for Mr. Elvy in December of 2007. Can you believe it? Seven years later the first hat is still around and well-worn, sometimes by the 8-year-old who was barely a year old then. Mostly it's worn by his dad, which is why the boy had to ask for his own.

This time around, I knit a small with a finished circumference of 20 inches. (I should have knit a medium, as it's almost too small.) The pattern is from Son of a Stitch 'N Bitch by Debbie Stoller and is called Skull Isle Hat, pattern by Chelsea Fowler-Biondolillo. The yarn is from my LYS, Happy Knits, and is a very serviceable (i.e., washable) wool sock yarn, Regia 4-fadig.

The hat isn't perfect; some of the skulls are slightly misshapen. You can see the worst of it in this picture. Figures, shoulda had the kid turn around for a different angle, but it was a miracle he let me take the picture in the first place. Most of the knitting was done on the go. I am finding that as the boys get older and have more activities, several times a week I am left cooling my heels while waiting for them. This particular hat was knitted over several twice-per-week sessions at Academy of Kung Fu. I have Hutchin on the needles right now for Mr. Elvy.

BTW, the scarf was knit by my mom. The boy likes to wear it "cravat" style, as he says.

Star Fish Hat in Red Wool

I finished this hat a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time to photograph it. It was a really quick project knit in a basic worsted weight red wool (Paton's Classic Merino Wool).  The pattern is from the book "60 Quick Knits." 

The semi-slouchy silhouette is cute.

My favorite part of the hat is definitely the starfish motif on the crown.  I think if I knit the hat again, I might try to omit the bobbles though.  It's a fine design element, but I have never been very good at making bobbles.  The bobbles in the pattern look round and plump, where mine always turn out flat and misshapen.

Star fish motif on the crown of the hat.

On Habitat and Economy

This is my third Habitat by Brooklyn Tweed.  If it hasn't become apparent by now, I love this pattern.  This time it only took me about a week to knit, although I had to knit it almost twice.  I started with a left-over ball of Princess in a beautiful orange-red -- I had just a little less than one ball, maybe about 130 yards where the pattern calls for 135 yards for the M/L size.  I ran out of yarn with just about half an inch left of the crown.  So I ripped the whole thing out and knit the S/M size.  I had about two yards of yarn left.

I won't say I regret my effort at economy -- after all, I ended up with another hat and absolutely no wasted yarn!  The only downside was I lost about a week's worth of knitting time.

Winter hats

I haven't been doing too much knitting lately. I seemingly lost my zest for knitting last spring and summer. I don't know if it was the change to warmer weather, but I still haven't regained the enthusiasm I once had for knitting. I once jokingly commented to my husband that I had more yarn than I could knit in a lifetime, and I think that it hit me this past year: yes, I do have more yarn than I will ever knit up, at least in MY lifetime. Sort of a bittersweet acknowledgment of mortality, I guess.

Even so, I am not one who can sit with my hands idle, so I did manage to complete two hats. The one below is from the latest Knitty.com (Fall 2010, Issue 33) and is called "Brambles." It was super easy and quick -- took me a few evenings of knitting. I used a worsted weight alpaca/wool blend yarn by Berrocco.


This next one took a bit longer. I actually started it last spring in an attempt to motivate myself but it just never happened. Anyhow, this fall I forced myself to complete it. The pattern itself was easy -- from Vogue Knitting Magazine (Fall 2009) but because the pattern called for fingering weight yarn, it took much longer to complete. The yarn is Colinette's jitterbug.



Both hats are destined to be gifts, most likely. I always plan on knitting one for myself, but the reality is that I'm not a hat person. Plus, for some reason, my almost-4-year-old always demands I remove hats and scarves when I put them on. Funny.

Saving up the FO's! First up, Shedir Hat...

I was updating my Ravelry page, only to discover that it's taken me almost one year to finish this hat. I worked on it last winter and finally picked it up again last week. It only took me a couple of evenings to finish up after having let it linger for quite a few months. So, here it is!

It's another Knitty pattern, part of the mini issue in support of breast cancer awareness. I knit the hat using one ball of Rowan Calmer on two size 3 circular needles. It was a so-so project process-wise, but the I love the result. I tried to post the link, but it wouldn't work. However, you can just go to knitty.com and do a search for "shedir." Have fun!