Haturday - Knit Hats

Neon Zag

Made in bits and pieces of leftover drifted acrylic yarn from other projects, I am sure that some people would be surprised that I bothered to knit a colorwork hat in acrylic yarn! I saved up the really bright greens and combined them with some dull greens to try and make the hat fun and a little quirky. The corrugated ribbing and zigzag really make the hat pop. I chose the colors based on how much yarn of each color I had and just winged the pattern as I went along. for the top by decreased quickly over several rounds, switching colors at the last minute to make the top of the hat have a bright pop.

Navy

This was just a quick simple knit in a wool/acrylic blend on giant needles. 2 x 2 ribbing for just an inch and a half keep it so that the hem doesn’t flare out. the top has a nice smooth series of decreases, four stitches every round to add a slight swirl to the top. The result is a very dense but not stiff hat that is quite warm.

Blue Man Hat

A simple hat with deep ribbing in light worsted weight yarn. I broke up the ribbing halfway through to add interest to an otherwise very plain and simple hat. The top is just a quick series of decreases starting over 8 stitches. For someone with a very small head that had is long enough to be turned up about 1 inch on the bottom.

Red Stripe Hat

Possibly the easiest way to use up leftovers is to knit a simple stripe hat. For this hat. I gathered up some of the bright red and purple yarns I had on hand in the last bit of a silk tweed yarn I found at the thrift store. I knit a 2 x 2 ribbing to help keep the hat on, then knit thick, chunky stripes to use up the bits of leftover yarn. I knit the ends in as a one along, which you can see a tiny bit. The yarns are a mix of wool, silk, and alpaca blend, and who knows what else. The result is rather bright for my taste, but hopefully someone will find it fun.

Purple Monster Hat

I knit this hat in worsted weight acrylic purple yarn with thrifted tweed silk sock weight yarn held along with it to add some interest. I worked a deep knit 3, purl 5 ribbing for half the body of the hat. The long ribbing is a great way to help hold a hat in place on your head. Like most of my hats, I used a quick decrease over a few rounds at the top. depending on the yarn you use, this style of hat can be a great hat for charity knitting– soft non-itchy yard for chemo hats, or a nice warm wool blend yarn for homeless.

Retro Zig

I knit this hat in wool tapestry yarn I found at the thrift store. The yarn worsted weight yarn more suitable for outerwear than next to the skin, but that will make the hat quite sturdy and warm, perfect for someone who is outside a lot. The ribbing would’ve looked better if I switch to smaller needles to work the ribbing, or increased a few stitches before beginning the zigzag pattern. They had quite a bit of the green yarn so I went ahead and used it for most of the body of the hat, changing to other colors when I felt like I wouldn’t have enough to make another zigzag. The green and red give it give it a very retro Christmasy feel, but hopefully someone will enjoy the color combination!

Blue Bow Hat

Knit in a soft blue light worsted weight yarn with an icord bow. I made the bow by knitting a section of icord long enough to tie in to a bow, the secured the bow in shape and stitched to the hat. The pattern on the hat is made by varying rounds of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing with rounds of stockinette stitch every 1 ½ inches or so. Alternating rounds of ribbing and stockinette help keep the hat from pulling in tightly, but still has enough stretch to keep it firmly on a small head. The top of the hat has yarn over rounds interspersed with the stockinette rounds to add a bit of a lacy touch.

Raspberry

This is the sort of hat I knit late at night when I can’t think of a pattern that I really want to knit and I know I have enough of the yarn to knit a full hat. There’s about 3 inches of ribbing and then the hat is knit around and around until I am ready for the decreases, and then work a series of rounds of knit two together around interspersed with plain rounds to decrease quickly. The ribbing is deep enough to hold the hat firmly in place, but the hat is also very large size (almost 24 inches around) so it will fit loosely.

Recycled Cashmere Fishing Hat

Super bulky cashmere yarn recycled from a sweater- I combined multiple strands together using a ball winder. The thicker yarn makes this hat warm, but also has the benefit of hiding the small knots- cashmere likes to break easily as it is unraveled- especially when you accidentally cut it! Winding multiple strands together makes it so that if a knot comes undone the whole hat doesn’t unravel.

The dark blue is leftover wool/acrylic from another hat- I love how fluffy it made the pompom!

PS- I long ago gave up making pom poms with cardboard/wrapping them about me fingers- which is always a disaster and involves lots of trimming. I use a pom pom maker with latches- mine looks like these which you can find on eBay for about $5. They work well enough if you only need to occasionally make pom poms, but are not as sturdy as the Clover ones (the latches on mine tend to fall off).

Retro Dot

retrodot (2)

I knit this hat in wool tapestry yarn I found at the thrift store. The yarn worsted weight yarn more suitable for outerwear than next to the skin, but that will make the hat quite sturdy and warm. I used the last bits of several skeins left over from other projects to add pops of color and stripes to this hat. Just a few rounds of color work here and there really make the pattern pop, and nothing is more than a repeat of four stitches around. The top of the hat incorporates a tiny bit every curlicue yarn as I ran out of wool yarn for the top. As usual a decreased for the top quickly over just a few rounds to finish off the hat.

Christmas tree hat

I knit this hat in wool tapestry yarn I found out the thrift store. I worked a 2 x 2 corrugated ribbing for about an inch and a half before making up the tree pattern as they went along (I planned it so the trees would be a multiple of eight stitches). from there, I made up the pattern. As I went along, letting the amount of yarn I had left dictate the motifs I used. the hat is quite large – close to 24 inches around, so good for someone with lots of hair or dreads. Since it’s a 100% wool yarn hat it is quite warm and will absorb quite a bit of moisture, making it suitable for wearing and light rain. the top of the hat uses my normal decreases, decreasing very quickly over just a few rounds to finish off the hat. I worked a single crochet stitch along the bottom 10 added tiny pop of color, and use up the leftover bit of green yarn that I had left. The result is a very retro inspired hat with plenty of quirk.

Black Ribbed Hat

Knit in Cascade 220 Superwash, this is a simple 2×2 ribbed hat knit until I couldn’t stand to knit any more ribbing. The hem is long enough to fold up several inches, perfect for a winter hat.

It takes almost a full skein of Cascade 220 to knit a ribbed hat that fits fairly loosely (8-16 stitches more than you would use for st st, to help keep it loose enough that it doesn’t pull in over your glasses!) and has a deep fold up hem.

Haturday - Knit Hats

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