Monthly Archives: January 2016

Knitted hat

Hi there! I’ve been a bit quiet here, but with the new year I’m refreshed and making good progress with a few projects so hope to be posting regularly again. To start, I’d like to share with you this hat that I finished last month.

I hadn’t done much knitting over the last year or two, but after discovering that a couple of my colleagues knit and looking through some of the fantastic things they’ve made I was inspired to pick up the needles again.

For a few years now I’ve been meaning to knit myself a hat as the store brought one that I used to wear would get a bit itchy after a while. I’ve had visions of designing a stranded knitting pattern along with ear flaps, but decided to start simple to ease myself back in. I’d also expected it to get colder earlier in the season and so was keen to be able to finish the hat fairly quickly!

Knitted hat

I made this using a yarn that I’d brought in New York a few years ago – Malabrigo Rios colour Archangel 850. The yarn is lovely and soft, so comfortable to wear all day. Plus it says it has good washability, so practical too!

To make the hat, I used the gauge from a test square and my head circumference to calculate the number of stitches required and started out with single ribbing, knitting it long enough to turn up. For the main body of the hat I wanted something a little more interesting than simply stocking stitch but as the yarn has a lovely variegated colour I also didn’t want a fussy pattern, so I settled on an uneven basket weave.

Knitted hat flat

I knit the hat using a circular needle so it was a quick make with no sewing up at the end. It wasn’t until I got to the decreasing that I realised I didn’t have any double pointed needles of the right size, but as I was impatient to finish by that time I decided to try using the magic loop method for the first time. While the first few rounds were not the easiest since the number of stitches was so high in comparison to the length of the needle, I managed to make it work and finished up the hat very quickly. I am happy to have tried a new technique and can certainly see its appeal for projects that you take travelling.

All in all, I’m very happy with this hat and it is starting to get plenty of wear now that it is turning colder here in London. I think I’ve caught the knitting bug again, so am already working on some socks for my next project…