Tag Archives: knitted hat

Kitty Hat

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How to make a square hat and turn it into a Kitty Hat

Making a square, knit hat is so easy.

Although I crochet a lot I really do love the look of a knit hat.  My 13 year old wanted a kitty hat so I tried several patterns that had sewn on ears.  They all flopped over which was disappointing.  I noticed some hats I had seen were square and when worn the top corners would stick out like ears…kitty cat ears?  They did!

Here is all there is to it.

Size 8 needles  (5 mm)

Worsted weight yarn (about 125 yards)

Yarn or Embroidery Floss for adding the face

Ribbon or fabric for the bow and an optional button for the middle of the bow.

My gauge is: 18 st in stockingnette = 4″ (10cm)

To knit in the round – Cast on 80 stitches, ribbing for first 1″ and then stockingnette stitch until work measures 7 1/2″.  Either use the Kitchener stitch (grafting) or a 3 needle bind off to close up the top.

To knit flat – Cast on 80 stitches.  Work in ribbing of your choice for first 1″.  Stockingnette stitch until work measures 7 1/2″ .  Divide stitches evenly onto each of your needles and use either a 3 needle bind off or graft the top shut.  Turn hat inside out, with a large needle run yarn up the back to close up the seam.

Embroider as desired and add a bow if you would like.  I used a left over piece of satin and sewed two 4″ x 3″ pieces together (right sides facing) leaving a small opening, stuffed and gathered in the middle and sewed a button on the front to cover my ugly stitches before attaching to the hat.

Resources:

These are the videos I used to learn both grafting and the three needle bind off.

Here is a helpful video for the 3 Needle bind off:  http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/casting-off

And also a video from KnittingHelp.com demonstrating how to Finish with the Kitchener stitch/grafting:  http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knitting-tips

 

Knitted Earflap Hat

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This is an easy to knit garment using worsted weight yarn,  and size US8 (5 mm) double point needles, circular or magic loop. Please check back as I will be posting the pattern soon.  If you would like to be notified by email when the pattern is published you can let me know by specifying that in the comment box below….I won’t publish your email address.

Quick Knitted Earflap hat

Snowboarders hat knitted with size 8 needles

So I got myself retrained a bit with the knitting.

One thing I noticed when I was knitting Wil’s Indianapolis Colts Ear flap hat with the checkerboard pattern was that the tips of my fingers were very sore.  This is due to my terrible habit of knitting too tightly on circulars.  So….

  1. since his friend wanted a blue and black hat
  2. I needed to get my tension issues resolved
  3. I wanted to write down the details in order of the actual pattern that I had developed from several
  4. A completed hat needed to be the size I was supposed to be knitting!
  5. I wanted an idea of how much yarn it really took (ie if I buy more expensive yarn how many hats will I get from a skein)
  6. there was a need to double check myself on crafting jog-less stripes
  7. the idea I learned from the Knitting Tips by Judy about slipping the first stitch (when doing ear flaps) gave a cleaner edge and I wanted to try it
  8. I had finally figured out cable cast on (thanks to KnittingTips.com) and wanted to try it out when I added the stitches across the front of the hat
  9. probably many more but I’m typing this up a month after the facts….

 

It seemed like the perfect opportunity. I casted on and made it a point that every stitch was going to slide off the needle withOUT my left finger assisting it and that I would knit straight thru without a single red spot on the ends of my finger tips.

The hat took [me] about 6 hours total and less than a softball sized amount of each the black and royal blue yarn.

Amazingly it fit Wil’s 21″ head, Vee’s 23″ head, and Stephan’s 24″

As the teens and tweens in my house very quite specific about if they were to wear any more of my hats in public

-The front was was not so high up on the forehead that it gave them the appearance of a five  year old girl with dorky bangs.  They all actually approved of the front.

-The back was long enough that it covered the back of their neck

-The boys liked that it was the full 8″ length because it gave that ‘floppy look’ as they called it.  The girls said it could have been an inch shorter and they would have been fine.

-The fashion conscious TJ (weeks before his 17th birthday) said good job on my grafting the top closed as it gave a flatter appearance although he still wants to see one in super fine yarn and size 0 or 1 needles.