Wednesday 26 November 2008

Soft silky hat



I made this hat with the same lovely soft silk/wool mixture I used for the scarf with the enlarged pattern, using light blue as an additional colour. While for the scarf I had enlarged the original pattern four times, for this hat I have enlarged it by 2, and used two different colour sequences. The chart for my stitch pattern is given below.

What I want to do first is give a generic instruction for a hat knitted from brim to top which you could use with any stitch pattern of your choice:

1. Choose a yarn you like and two or three colours. Two colours should have a good dark/light contrast.


2. Knit a sample swatch. Measure and find gauge (amount of stitches for 10 cm)

3. Measure head circumference.

4. Calculate amount of stitches you need for this. Increase or decrease this amount by one or a few stitches so that you arrive at a multiple of the stitch pattern repeats. (which were 8 stitches in my hat). Add to this amount two stitches for the selvages. (No symmetry stitches needed here.)

5. Cast on this amount of stitches.

6. Knit according to your chosen chart. If you wish change to another colour sequence at some point.

7. After 11 cm (for larger hats a little later) start decreasing. Eliminate every third horizontal repeat by knitting together two stitches in every second row until these repeats have vanished.




8. Knit without further decreases until work measures approximately 19cm. Then knit together every 7th /8th stitch, in second next row every 5th/6th stitch, in next second row every 3rd/4th stitch.

9. Gather all remaining stitches with thread, pull tight.

10.Join back seem and darn in loose ends.

Here is the chart I used in my hat. I needed to cast on 148 stitches.



Note: rows 1-4 in the blue circle should read rows 1-2.

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