Little Bits.....: Hats.............knitted hats!

Four of them. All different but cast on the same 70 stitches, rib of K1, P1 for 10 rows and then do the patterns which are all simple. Cast off instructions are the same for all the hats so I will post at the bottom. I used a circular needle that is stainless steel and it was 5mm. I have no idea of the yarn but it was fine. Not worsted, not bulky. It was given to me without a band so I took my chances.

This one is knit 6 rows, then do the seed stitch for 6 rows and repeat until your knitting measures out to 5 inches. If you don't want to do the seed stitch you could purl the 6 rows.

Seed stitch is simple. K1, P1 for the first row.

Second row: P1, K1

Third row: K1, P1 and repeat these 3 rows once more.

The pompom is made up of some grey yarn I had left-over and the red from the hat. I used two strands of grey and one of the red.

Makes it different.

I like this design. Easy but its better than plain knitting. You can easily do this in one evening. Same cast on, same cast off.

K5, P2 for all the rows. Knit until you have 5 inches from the cast on edge of the ribbing.

The pompom was a different grey yarn and the red. Same concept as the first one but the grey was a different yarn.

No it isn't the same as the last one. This is K4, P3. and a bit of a twist. So here you go.

K4, P3 for 5 rows

Purl one row

K4, P3 for 6 rows

Purl one row

K4, P3 for 7 rows

Purl one row

Same length for the knitting.

The pompom was a soft creamy yellow yarn that has been hanging round for awhile. I cannot for the life of me figure out what to do with this yarn, so it's going in the "I'll think about this" bag. I may be thinking for a long time!!

And finally.................simplicity itself. No thinking required so it was knitted up while I watched, listened to tv. Sometimes I get really involved in a show, sometimes it is background noise

I have a short circular needle -- 16inch cable -- for knitting hats. I highly recommend them. This one is stainless steel but there are a few out there on the market. I do not like the needles that Michaels sells and wish I had never spent my money on them. That's another story for another day.

Okay the cast off. You cast on 70 stitches so you want this to work out evenly. You want to work in groups of 7 stitches and I figured that out by dividing the 7 into 70 and it works out just right.

Every other row is a knit row, so all the odd rows are cast off rows.

Row 1.....K5, K2tog

Row 3.....K4, K2tog

Row 5.....K3, K2tog

Row 7.....K2, K2tog

Row 9,....K1, K2tog

Row 11....K2together across the row.

You may have to switch out to 4 dpn (double pointed needles) to do the cast off once you get down to row 5.

Once you have cast off at the the final row, cut the yarn, use a "yarn needle" and pull the yarn through the final stitches. I usually go around the second time just to make sure I have snagged all the stitches and then finish off the yarn with a good knot.

This is my pompom vase. It's bits and bobs of yarn left over from projects. I can pull from this to make two colour pompoms. One colour doesn't give the hats enough pizzazz! It sits on my hutch in the dining-room and when a hat is knitted I sit and make my pompoms. It's good afternoon work because it is mindless.