Talk To Me About Hats
I have a friend who is having a really crummy couple of months and needs a hat (hi babe, I’m totally soliciting advice on your behalf, trust me it’s better this way). Now I’ve never made a hat, but I want to try. Not only have I never knit a hat, I don’t think I’ve ever even worn a hat any time after I started dressing myself. I have a big head and a lot of hair. This doesn’t lend itself to hats. So I need some guidance.
I have two skeins (about 300 yards total) of Malabrigo Twist in Indiecita. This stuff is super soft and just the right color for my friend. Even better, I think 300 yards will be plenty for a hat with some left over for the inevitable botch ups that will come along somewhere in the process. It’s also just gorgeous and I had grand plans for it and somehow it feels better to make this hat out of something from the ‘special’ stash. It needs to be full of good thoughts, and that starts with the yarn.
So talk to me about hats. Top-down or toe brim-up? Form-fitting or slouchy? Plain or fancy? And finally, and this is perhaps the most important bit, make my own or go find a pattern? I’ve not knit from a pattern for ages. What can I say, I resist instruction. But, since this will be my first hat and since I want to get it done some time soon, maybe I should try it. So dish folks. Share favorite hat patterns and any generalized hat suggestions.
I recommend looking at the Techknitter’s blog. She has lots of information on crown decreases and all the technical stuff on knitting.
Definitely browse the patterns out there for inspiration but since you are amazing with patterns, do your own thing. 😉
As for the fit, I think that really depends on your friend. I have a huge head and round face so I know that big slouchy hats make me look much worse.
How apropos! I’m thinking hats, too, now that we live somewhere where it snows again! I don’t like hats that are tight, but I don’t like really slouchy ones, either, so I tend to figure out my gauge, then measure my head where the brim will go. Subtract one to one and a half inches, so the hat will stay one! I try to cast on an even number, because it makes figuring out the decreases easier. I work about 2.5 inches, then increase a few stitches so the main part of the hat is a bit looser. Keep going for about 5-6 inches, then decrease for the crown. There are a lot of ways to do it, depending on how you want to shape it – I tend to like working with a multiple of 10 or 20, and then decrease every 10th or 20th st the first time, then the 9th or 19th the next, etc. Keeps the math easy! For a great pattern, that I’m going to make for me, check out brookenelson.com (I think that’s right – if not, drop the “e” from Brooke) and her leaf pattern hat. I’m also making the matching scarf. Now if only I can find a really great yarn here in Bordeaux, I’ll be really happy 🙂
One of the easiest and most flattering hats I ever knit was one with a rolled brim. So simple! Just cast on enough stitches to go around the head. Knit in the round – stockinette- for long enough to allow for the natural roll to occur along the ridge and still have enough length to make it to the crown of the head. Then decrease in 4 or 6 spots equally spaced around the head, every other row.
Here’s a link to an awesome pattern too. Jared Flood…Brooklyn Tweed – Turn a square pattern – FREE!http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/turn-a-square He has designed an interesting decrease sequence for the crown. I love this hat as well!
Correction…I just got the hat out to see, I decreased at 8or 9 spots around the crown of the head. I will send you a link to pictures.
Well, I’m definitely one for making my hats brim up (and my socks top down too, what does that tell you about me? knitting psych 101…) so I’m obviously going to suggest you do it that way. Hats aren’t complicated, especially compared to socks.
I have to say, my friend gave me a meret : http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/meret-mystery-beret
as a present and it’s my all time favourite hat, very slouchy. I’m very much a fan of slouchy hats, all others are too tight…
hope your search goes well!
Brim up is definitely easier for hat newbies. I like top-down for when I’m not sure how much yarn I have.
A lot of FGF folks seem to like the Felicity hat. I tend to make snug, ribbed toques intended for keeping the cold out and the warm in and don’t so much mind how you look in them.
I would suggest that you find a very simple beginner hat to learn the mechanics of the thing, then very quickly you will begin designing your own.
Essentially – figure your gauge (depending on yarn weight) and cast on in multiples of 7 or 8. Make the brim however long you want, then evenly space seven (or 8) decreases around every other row for worsted and up, and every third row for fingering weight.
It’s rather a lot of fun figuring out how to do the decreases and maintain the pattern you put on the brim.
“It’s rather a lot of fun figuring out how to do the decreases and maintain the pattern you put on the brim.”
It’s this kind of thinking that got me in all this trouble with the socks you know…this is how obsessions start.
I’ve been knitting lots of hats in preparation for winter. Also, I have the same big hair sort of conundrum. Berets, berets, berets – the slouchier the better. No matter what the starting point for the hat is (brim or top) this is what accommodates my mass of hat un-friendly hair.