Brown Beanie Pattern

I bought some of my favorite yarn to make some hats for my Etsy store, and here's a little something I designed. It is size 2T-5T and measures with an 18" circumference and is 7" from ribbing to crown.

Even though it's a touch time consuming, the colorwork is fun, easy, and it creates an amazing effect and pattern. 

This assumes that you have knitting experience + some stranded colorwork experience and know how to switch colors and carry the strand along the back of the work.

Materials needed: 

16" circular needles, size 6. 

I use two sets of circulars for my decrease, but you can also use 4 double pointed needles to accomplish the same thing.  

1 skein KnitPicks Comfy Worsted yarn for the main color. 

Approx. 1/4 skein for the contrasting color(s).

I used Bison for the main color and Light Blue, Carrot, and Creme Brulee for the contrasting colors.

Abbreviations:

K=knit

P=purl

MC=Main Color

CC= Contrasting Color

st=stitch

sts=stitches

K2tog: Knit two together

Directions:

With MC, cast on 88 stitches. Join to knit in the round, being careful not to twist.

For the ribbing, K2P2 around until the ribbing measures approx. 1"; this will be about 8-10 rounds. 

After ribbing is finished:

1. K 3 rounds with MC
2. *K1 MC, K1 CC; repeat from * all the way around 
3. K 3 rounds with MC
4. *K1 CC, K1 MC; repeat from * all the way around

Repeat 1-2 so so that you then have three rows of CC sts.
Switch to your second CC and do the same thing, making sure that you have 3 rounds of MC in between your CC rounds and that you have three rounds of MCst, CCst

Continue this until hat measure 5" from bottom then start the decrease.
I got a total of 8 stripes of alternating MC/CC sts before I started the decrease.

For the decrease, continue in the pattern and...

*K6, K2tog; repeat from * around.  

K around

*K5, K2tog; repeat from * around.

K around

*K4, K2tog; repeat from * around.

K around

*K3, K2tog; repeat from * around.

K around

*K2, K2tog; repeat from * around.

K around

*K1, K2tog; repeat from * around.

K around

K2tog all the way around. 

 Cut off a long tail, and string it through the remaining sts on needles. Pull tight. Weave in all ends. 

b&w stripey hat

Wow. It's been almost a year since my last crafty post.

Just. Wow.
 
I've been keeping busy crafting though, and am excited to share some new things here!

This hat I knit for an Etsy custom order, and it turned out really cute. The only direction I had from the buyer was that she requested the colors. She left the design up to me.

I used my basic adult sized hat pattern, and this Mother's Day Flower from Lion Brand website. I knit 3/4" black and white stripes, and the hot pink flower makes the stripes pop!

It turned out very adorable and hope that the recipient loves it as much as I do!

Cashmere Dimple Hat

I came across this pattern on Ravelry, and fell in love with it. The original pattern is from the Purl bee, which never disappoints.

I had two balls of KnitPicks Capra wool/cashmere yarn (color: Harbor) sittin' around and wanted to make something outstanding, but not too difficult or time-consuming.

To be honest, I had the yarn because I was going to make this hat, but I had to rip it out six (yes, six) times due to twisting while joining the stitches, casting on too few stitches, casting on too many, not doing the cabling correctly, dropping stitches in the first round, and something else but I forget.
So, I concluded that hat just wasn't meant to be, and I'm so glad it didn't work out between the two of us.

The pattern is very straight-forward and you just have to trust it. I also found that a row counter thingy worked very well to keep me organized. Then again, I have a very bad short-term memory, and can't seem to remember what row I'm knitting if I don't have it written down or counted with some sort of external device.

The pattern calls for 1 1/4 inches of ribbing for the cuff but if I were to make it again, I'd make the cuff 1 1/2 inches long. My hat fits perfectly, but I could see how it would be just a touch short on some heads.

Happy knitting!