Looked Good in the Picture

A friend of mine is very pregnant and so I figure should get started in knitting up some baby hats for the little one.  Since we don't yet know the gender, I'm knitting one for each.  I'm betting on a girl though.  I chose this one cuz it looked really good in the picture; cute baby modeling the hat helped.  The pattern is from the book, Baby Beanies by Amanda Keeys.  My review of the book can be found in a earlier post on this blog.

Well, after 5 trys, I ended up with this.  Not quite the same as the picture - I read the decreasing steps wrong, really really wrong.  The sixth try was a gooder.

To make one yourself, this is what 

you do:

1. Cast on a heck of a lot of stitches, 192 for a small (0-6 months, 12 3/4" circumference), 216 for a medium (6-12 months, 14 1/2" circumference), 240 for a large (1-2 years, 16" circumerence) and 264 for an extra large (> 2 years, 17 1/2" circumfernce).  Use size 7 needles.  I started on circular needles then switched to double pointed needles.

2. For the first round after casting on, place a marker of some sort, connect the round and knit for the entire round.  The author suggests to knit your stitches really loosely on this round and I would have to agree.  Make your stitches really really loose cuz you have to knit three together in the next round.

3. Second round - (k3tog) Knit three stitches together and repeat until you reach the end of the round.  You should end up with 64 (72, 80, 88) stitches at the end of this round.  As an alteration to the pattern, I'd start with only half the cast on stitches and then knit 2 together for the second round.  You'd end up with less ruffle (prolly shoulda told you this in the beginning but it's a quick knit, you can make one of each).

4. Forth round and onwards, working in the round, knit all stitches until you are about 1/2" from the cast on edge.

5. Eyelet round - kinda tricky cuz of the yarn over.  For this round do this stitch pattern: yarn over (YO), knit 2 together (k2tog) and knit 6 (K6).  Repeat this until the end of round.  To do a yarn over just do a regular knit but instead of having the yarn that leads to the ball in the back, have it in the front of the piece and then loop it around the needle and knit.

6. Boring part - knit like crazy on every round until the piece measures 5 1/2" (6", 6 1/2", 7") from the cast on edge.

7.  Decreading part - the part that I messed up.  For the first decreasing round, knit 6 then knit 2 together and repeat this (k6, k2tog) until the end of the round then stop.

8. Now knit the whole round and stop.

9. Now knit 5 then knit 2 together and repeat this (k5, k2tog) until the end of the round.

10. Knit entire round.

11. Knit 4 then knit 2 together and repeat (k4, k2tog) until the end of the round.

12. Knit entire round (do you see a pattern developing here?)

13. Knit 3 then knit 2 together and repeat (k3, k2tog) until the end of the round.

14. Knit entire round.

15. Knit 2 then knit 2 together and repeat (k2, k2tog) until the end of the round.

16. Knit entire round.

17. Knit 1 then knit 2 together and repeat (k1, k2tog) until the end of the round.

18. Knit 2 together and repeat (k2tog) for the whole round.

19. Cut yarn leaving a long tail (6") to be safe and thread the tail through the remaining loops.  Let the tail end up falling into the center of the hat on the inside of the hat.  Now pull the tail, closing the opening like a drawstring.  Tie the tail and weave in the end.

20. Weave a nice ribon through the eyelets and tie in a bow or a knot (if your not good with bows) but leave some slack for the hat to expand.