Blue Sky Hat

Cast on 80 stitches

Ribbing:
K1 through back look, P1

Stitch pattern for for body of hat:
Rnd 1: ** sl 1, K2, psso, P2**
Rnd 2: ** K1, yo, K1, P2**
Rnds 3 and 4: **K3, P2**

We've had beautiful weather the last few days and I'm anticipating days and days more like it to come.  I've been spending the afternoons outside listening to the birds singing and the wind in the poplars as I knit.

Lost Hats, Now Found

I came across several hats I'd knit for charity a long while ago which never found their way into a donation box.  They will be added to the hats to go to The Maine Mitten Project.

Hmmm.... I think that blue hat needs a pompom on top!

Summer Yarn Destash

My goal this summer is to knit up as much of my stash as possible and give what I knit to charity.  I am starting with hats made of worsted yarn.  I have two big boxes of Lamb's Pride worsted yarn and that's what I'll use.  Here's a photo. There is probably more in stray areas but this is most of it.

I'm going to use a generic hat pattern. There will not be any stockinette knit hats as I get bored too easily.  I'll be using many of the stitch patterns I've  used in my sock knitting (see Knitting Only Socks) along with some from Ravelry and other sources on the Internet, and from knitting books.
 
Here's what I'm doing. I'm using a 16" size 5 circular needle.   Most hat patterns using worsted weight yarn  call for a size 8 but my work looks sloppy when I use larger needles, so it's size 5 needles for me.

I'll need about 50 grams of yarn to make a hat for a teenager or an adult so the first thing I'll do is make sure I have at least that amount of yarn in one color weighting  it using a kitchen scale.

I'll cast on between 80 and 100 stitches.  The number depends upon the number of stitches the stitch pattern requires and if I'm making a hat for a teenager or a woman.  I think for men I'll need to go up a bit--maybe to 110 or perhaps more.

I'll do some kind of ribbing for 7-12 rounds. My favorite ribbing is K1 through the back loop, P1 but I'm also going to use K2, P2 or K2 through the back loop, P2 or garter stitch or seed stitch, or maybe a simple cable.  I'll look for more as I look at hat patterns. I like a variety!   I want to use different stitch patterns for the body of the hats.

The body of the hat will vary from 5-7 inches in length.  When I'm ready to decrease, I'll divide the stitches by an even number. For example, if I have 80 stitches I'll use a division of 10 stitches and knit as follows, changing to size 5 dpns when I can no longer use the circular needle:

Round 1: Knit 8 stitches, knit 2 together all the way around
Round 2: Knit even
Round 3: Knit 7 stitches, knit 2 together all the way around
Round 4: Knit even
and so on until I have 4-6  stitches left.

I'll end with an i-cord or pull all the stitches together and add a pom-pom or maybe just a knob of yarn on top.

There will be one post per hat which will include the number of  stitches I cast on, the pattern used for ribbing, the stitch pattern for the body of the hat, and where I was/what I was doing as I knit. Oh!   And a photo too.

I want to make as many hats as possible using one color.   As you can see from the photo, much of my yarn no longer has ball bands so I can't  always include that information.  Some I know have been discontinued.   Yes, that's how long I've had this yarn!

When I'm left with balls less than 50 grams I'll start figuring out two or three color patterns I can make.  And when I'm done with the worsted weight yarns, I'll  start using my stash DK yarns. I'll make both hats and mittens from that yarn and as much of  this yarn is  pastel,  they'll probably be mostly children and baby items.  I also have a lot of fingering weight gray yarn which I'll double and use to make men's ribbed hats..

If you've read my sock knitting blog you'll know I like to give my projects names based on the color or pattern and I'm going to do that with these hats and later, mittens.  I'll also include what I was doing as I knit.

So where are these hats going?  I've chosen The Maine Mitten Project as the recipient and they need to be there by the end of September.  I hope to have a lot of hats and mittens by then!

Four Little Hats

These four little hats were knit in the past week from leftover bits of sock yarn.

Three Little Blue Preemie Hats

These were made from leftover sock yarn.

And a Blue One

A Preemie Hat

A Plain Pair of Mittens

I knit these for my mitten blog, but as they are for charity I am posting a photo here as well. The pattern used is this one and I'm using Lamb's Pride Worsted Weight and size 4 double pointed needles. The size is medium.

Two More Preemie Hats

I finished both of these little hats over the Christmas break.

Red and White Fair Isle Child's Hat

This hat will fit a child 6-8 years old. The pattern is free from Ravelry and can be found here. It's called Winter's Coming and it's made from wool yarn from my stash.

Three Hats

These are hats I knitted from stash yarn this weekend. The beige wool was given to me recently by a co-worker. I liked how these turned out and I have a lot more yarn to use up!

Blue Baby Beanie

I knit this hat in one evening. The pattern is free on Ravelry, here. I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in teal and size 4 dpns. A fun knit!

Six Fair Isle Baby Hats

I'm going to start a blog on knitting mittens in January and some mittens will be fair isle. I've done very little fair isle knitting so I thought I'd start by making some two color baby hats for practice. I used this Ravelry pattern. I had trouble at first and made lots of mistakes which meant I had to rip out sections and re-knit, sometimes more than once. It took me almost 8 hours to knit the first hat, but now I can knit them in half the time. I used partial skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn and I'm thinking of making some hats using a variety of colors using scraps. They will fit babies 3-6 months.

These will be going to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Tiny Pumpkin Hat

The nickel is there to show the size. I think I have enough yarn to make another one.

Safe Return

This traditional motif was featured in a children's book, Safe Return by Catherine Dexter. Based on a true incident in 1824 on an island in the Baltic Sea, it was also mentioned in The Mitten Book by Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson.

A Fair Isle Hat

This hat will fit a child about 6-8 years old and will be sent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is made of worsted weight wool.

One TinyTomato Hat

More Preemie Hats

Calvin's Hats

Here are twelve hats made for Calvin's Hats. These tiny hats are for babies born much too soon and are intended to carry a small amount of healing, comfort, and peace.

The pattern:

Baby Cashmerino (or any DK yarn)
Size 3 dp needles
Tapestry needle

Cast on 48 stitches and divide evenly on three needles (16 stitches each).
K1 through the back loop, P1 for 10 rounds.
Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
YO, K2 tog one round
Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
Knit 12 rounds even
K6, K2tog for one round
K5, K2 tog for one round
K4, K2 tog for one round
K3, K2 tog for one round
K2, K2 tog for one round
K1, K2 tog for one round
K2 tog for one round
Use last three stitches to make an I-cord about 3/4".
Weave in ends.

These hats take about an hour each to make.

Watermelon Preemie Hat

Knit on size 1 dp needles using hand dyed, self-striping watermelon with seeds sock yarn bought from KnitPurlGirl on Etsy last March. It is 75% Superwash merino wool and 25% nylon.

I cast on 60 stitches, did a k2,p2 rib for 10 rounds, knit 20 rows in stockinette stitch then decreased as follows:
Round 1: k4, k2 tog
Round 2: k
Round 3: k3, k2 tog
Round 4: k
Round 5: k2, k2 tog
Round 6: k
Round 7: k1, k2 tog
Round 8: k
Round 9: k2 tog
Round 10: k2 tog
Make i-cord. Weave in ends.

I realized after I finished the first sock I made with this yarn, that I would have plenty to make this hat so I finished the hat and now I'm starting the second sock.