Basic Hat
As the designer of this pattern, I would love to hear your comments on it. If it inspires you to try your hand at designing, so much the better—I’m an engineer, not an artist, so if I can do it, anyone can.
I would also prefer that you contact me and request permission before distributing this pattern to a large group or selling hats made with this pattern. Doesn’t mean I’ll say no, but I’d like to keep track of these things.
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The hat shown was made using my very basic hat recipe.
As blank slates go, this is about the blankest.
What you'll need:
Ability to do, or willingness to learn: Casting on, knitting, purling, working in the round, and decreases, at the minimum. The ability to select motifs and/or techniques of interest is also recommended.
Less than 200 yards of worsted weight yarn
size 7 (US) circular needles
size 7 (US) double-pointed needles
Yarn needle to weave in ends.
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First, poke around knitting books and websites until you see a stitch pattern you like. In a perfect world, the number of stitches you cast on (see paragraph below) will be divisible by the length of the pattern repeat. Or just do stockinette, or ribbing.
With worsted weight yarn and size 7 circular needles, cast on 110 stitches for a fat head like mine, 100 for a regular head, 90 or less for a kid head, 120 if you want to put a bunch of colorwork or cables into it, as these stitches tend to make knitted fabric more narrow.
Do 5-10 rows of ribbing, garter stitch, or other non-curlifying knittification. Do 2-3x as much if you have plenty of yarn and want the brim to fold over.
Make cables, stripes, Fair Isle, or just plain knit until the hat, still relatively squished-up on circulars, fits on your head and is the right length (if doing this for a kid, you may need to call them over for a few seconds instead).
*k8, k2tog*, repeat * to * until the end of the row, then knit a row plain.
*k7, k2tog*, repeat * to * until the end of the row, then knit a row plain.
*k6, k2tog*, repeat * to * until the end of the row, then knit a row plain.
*k5, k2tog*, repeat * to * until the end of the row, then knit a row plain.
Continue in this way, switching to double-pointed needles when the circulars get uncomfortable. When you've gotten to last row (aka *k0, k2tog*), break the yarn a foot away from the knitting, thread the yarn through the remaining loops twice, pull closed, and weave in the ends.
The Christmas before last, everyone in my dad's family got a hat made from this recipe, though sometimes I messed with the decreases to work more seamlessly with the pattern. In the process I experimented with cables, figured out 2-colored knitting, discovered the mysterious and intimidating "no stitch" symbol on charts, and got more fearless. I ripped the stranded knit hat out--twice--because I didn't know how much it would pull in. But now I know how it works. A small price to pay for 6 hours of lost knitting.
Further variations:
-For a long pointy hat, do 5, 7, or 9 plain rows between the decreases (I made a very long hat doing 9 plain rows).
-If your pattern of interest is less than 3 inches wide and would look better as a long strip, knit a 2-3 inch wide strip, bordered by seed or garter stich, long enough to comfortably fit around the head. Connect the ends, and evenly pick up the same number of stitches as would have been cast on, had you started with a plain hat.
-Add earflaps by picking up stitches off the base of the completed hat. Or work them in the opposite direction--start with the earflaps and cast on the desired number of stitches around them.
So try it. Expand your horizons. What do you have to lose?
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A quick note on copyright:
As the designer of this pattern, I would love to hear your comments on it. If it inspires you to try your hand at designing, so much the better—I’m an engineer, not an artist, so if I can do it, anyone can.
I would also prefer that you contact me and request permission before distributing this pattern to a large group or selling hats made with this pattern. Doesn’t mean I’ll say no, but I’d like to keep track of these things.