Mini hat knitting pattern

I don’t usually post two in a day but a friend of a friend was talking about putting them on the lids of teapots… which made me wonder why I’d left out the pattern in the previous post!

Anyway, with the original pattern (link in previous post) you cast on 28.  When I made the tiny ones, I cast on 12.  Pattern goes as follows:

Use 4mm knitting pins. Metal or plastic is best.

Cast on 12 stitches.

1st row = Knit
2nd row = Knit
3rd row = Knit
4th row = Purl
5th row = Knit
6th row = Purl
7th row = Knit
8th row = Purl
9th row = K2tog (knit 2 together for the entire row, which gives you 6 stitches)
10th row – P2tog (purl 2 together for the entire row, which gives you 3 stitches)

Cut off the yarn a few inches from the end and thread the end through a needle. 

Thread the needle through the 3 stitches. 

Remove the knitting pin and pull the yarn tightly to close the stitches at the top. 

Turn it inside out and sew the seam at the back. 

Turn it right-side out and you have a mini hat!

NOTE:  I cast on a little differently for this project.  Normally I cast on with my thumb.  For this project, I cast on my stitches with two pins.  It makes the bottom edge of the hat a little looser (so that it fits nicely but not tight) on your thumb.  What I did was to insert the needle into the slip-knot knitwise and then bring the yarn around the needle (as you would if knitting), draw it through the slip-knot and simply place the new loop onto the needle.

You are free to use the pattern as you wish but I’d appreciate it if you could tell people where you found it. Thank you!

Mini hats!

I was thinking about Christmas cards the other day.  I know it’s August but I make all of my Christmas cards by hand so unless I start now they’ll never get finished in time, especially as I want to make a whole load of my cross-stitched robins again for a few of the Cancer Research charity shops nearby (in Anniesland, Partick and I think there’s one on Sauchiehall Street…) as well as my own designs for the cards I’ll be sending to people.

Having been taught how to knit back in March, at the Creative Stitches/HobbyCrafts craft show at the SECC by a lovely lady called Johanna, I’ve been practicing a lot recently.  On Sunday I had an idea about knitting mini bobble hats but wasn’t sure how. I started thinking that if I could knit a semicircle, I could pin that down and make it look like a hat. That way I would also be getting more from the yarn, meaning I could make a lot more of them.  I tried everything I could think of and even messaged a few friends for advice but I just couldn’t get what was in my head OUT.  I got really annoyed (mostly with myself) and then got quite upset. My brilliant idea wasn’t going to happen after all!  I tried phoning a few friendly people, just to hear a friendly voice and hear happy stories, etc to cheer me up… But that didn’t happen either.  I went to bed all grumpy and covered in bits of fluff!

As usual, I was woken up at 4am by noisy people banging doors.  Normally this bothers me quite a bit, but on this occasion I had another brilliant idea.  I would knit bobble hats, and I was sure that there were patterns on the Innocent Drinks website.  They did a campaign a while ago where people knitted mini hats to go on their bottles.  A few pence from each one sold would be donated to Age UK.  I found the beginners pattern and it looked easy enough.  I printed it out and got to work as soon as I got home. 

Some 4hrs later, I had made this: 

That was ok, and I thought they could be sewn to the card, but could also be removed and used as egg cosies.  Then I added the bobble and that squished that idea.  It was now too big and bulky to put on cards.  I looked at the pattern again and had ANOTHER idea.  When making this one, you cast on 28 stitches… What would happen if I cast on, say… 12?  Well, I tried it…!

And this happened!

Tiny hats!

I was so pleased and excited to finally have an idea that worked, I made this lot:

Cute, huh?  The purple and yellow stripy hat at the front was my first ever attempt at knitting stripes. 

These little cuties will most definitely find themselves on cards this year (along with a scarf, if I can figure out a decent pattern…)

The original pattern can be found HERE.