Scrap Hat Recipe (free pattern for a stashbusting hat)

Dearest knitters, verily I say unto you, 'tis the season for elving. And, because of that I thought I would share my recipe for my scrap hats. This is not really a pattern - it has not been tested by test knitters, or tech-edited or checked for mistakes - it's just a loose set of instructions. The extra bonus is that you don't need to buy any yarn for this, just use your scraps!!

Size

This is a one-size hat for a man or woman. Actual hat size is in the region of 58cm. 

Yarn

You will need approximately 75g of double knit yarn in colours of your choosing. I find it easiest to group together like colours (e.g. shades of blue, or shades of green) with one or two contrasting colours for interest. If you want to add a knitted lining, you will need more yarn. I usually make my linings in one colour - just choose something that will be comfortable to wear next to the skin. 

As the hat is textured, it is also possible to include heavier and lighter yarns.  I find knitting with 2 strands of 4 ply yarn works well, although one strand can be tolerated in small doses. Chunky or aran weight yarns can be similarly tolerated in small doses.

Gauge

something like 18 stitches to 10cm worked in st st in the round on 3.75mm needles.

Instructions

Cast on 100 stitches using a 3.75mm circular needle (or DPNs) and using DK yarn. If I do add on a few stitches for a bigger hat/head then I make sure I use a multiple of 4 - just to make working out the decreases a lot easier!

Knit until work measures 5 cm. This will make the roll up brim of the hat.

On the next round begin your first purl band, and purl for at least 2 rounds. 

Knit a few rounds, and then purl again as your fancy takes you.

Continue to alternate between knit bands and purl bands. I tend to make my purl bands between one round and 3 rounds and my knit bands a bit more than that. I don’t count the rounds between bands, but alternate by eye.

Change colour whenever you feel the urge or your current scrap of yarn comes to an end. Since the whole point of this hat is to use up yarn then there is no need to count stitches, rounds or master the jogless join.  When changing colours you can either employ your usual yarn joining technique and weaving in ends as you go or do what I do and knit the old yarn with the new yarn for a few stitches. This might be seen as slovenly, but in a project like this perfection is not necessary and I like the variegation you get when you knit two yarns together. Do what you have to…

Continue until the work measures approximately 18cm finishing with a purl band of 3 rounds (roughly).

On the next knit round, begin to shape the crown as follows:

*k2tog tbl, k21, k2tog , rep from * until end.

Next alt round: *k2 tog tbl, K19, k2tog rep from * until end.

Next  altround: *k2 tog tbl, k17, k2 tog rep from * until end.

Keeping pattern correct, work crown decreases until…

For a flat topped hat suitable for a bobble

… only 8 stitches remain, then break yarn, run tail through stitches and pull tight, sewing in end firmly to secure the top of the hat. A bobble if desired.

For a hat with a stalk

… work until 4 stitches remain then knit a few cm of i-cord before casting off. I like to tie a knot in my i-cord stalks, so I normally make the stalk about 10cm or so.

For a hat with a tassle,

… work crown decreases until only 2 stitches remain then work 15cm of i-cord, cast off and attach a suitable tassel to the end of your i-cord.

Weave in ends, wash hat gently, shape and dry.

If you want to add a knitted lining, then it's fairly straightforward: pick up stitches inside the brim of the hat. The round where the outer hat changes from stocking stitch to reverse stocking stitch provides a useful place to pick up these inner stitches. Knit the lining using your preferred rib pattern - I use either 2x2 rib or 2x1 rib, just depending on my mood. Knit until the lining reaches the start of the crown shaping on the outer hat, then work crown decreases. I usually work these as follows:

round 1: *knit 2bl, knit 8 , repeat from * to end.
round 2: work in pattern
round 3: *knit 2tbl, knit 7, repeat from * to end. 
round 4: work in pattern..

Keep this going until you have only 3 stitches between decreases, then decrease every round. when there are only 8 or so stitches left, then break yarn, pull through and close up. It should look something like this.... 

Happy knitting folks! I'd love to hear about any scrap hats that you make.... 

Making Monday #10: here endeth the lesson

You will be glad to hear that after all the cursing two weeks ago, I managed to get that scrap hat finished and sent off to my brother in time for his birthday (Happy Birthday, bro!).

After I fell foul of the knitting gods over the whole brim thing, I took a few deep breaths, and possibly a sip of gin, I considered my options. I couldn't see a way of fudging or incorporating the extra stitches into a spiffy new design feature. So, that really only left one option - to detach the brim and then reknit using the frogged yarn. If ever there was a lesson in ultimate yarn thrift, this is it!

Here is the finished hat, with a reknitted brim. 

As is usual for my scrap hats, there was a knitted lining - seen here - , which I also needed to rework. I frogged and reknitted for two reasons:

1. after making that rookie mistake with stitch numbers, I wasn't going to get caught out again (shakes fist at knitting gods), and 

2. because the outside of the hat is mostly wool or wool mix, it has shrunk a bit with inappropriate washing over time. The lining for this hat is made with cotton yarn (a bit cooler than double wool as this is a summer hat, obvs!) and hadn't shrunk, so it was a bit saggy. 

I picked up stitches inside the brim and knitted the innards using a 2x2 rib. 

Nice huh? Remaking and repairing is just as satisfying as making new things I find. What are you mending today? I'd love to hear...

Mending Monday #8: hat it again (or what knitting taught me this week)

It doesn't seem possible that my house/life has quite so much mending in it, but I am not making it up, people. I live with ruffians I tell you. 

I saw my brother recently and he presented me with a very sorry looking hat. It is one of the three scrap hats I have given him over the years (he wears a hat most of the time, even in the summer. No, I don't understand it either). One of the yarns I had used had started to disintegrate with the result that the hat was developing organised holes in various places. I say organised because the fabric and stitches around was intact, so picking up live stitches seemed fairly straightforward.

Here you can see one of the smaller holes.

This hole was a bit more dramatic. As there was a complete round or two of dodgy yarn here, it soon parted company with the rest of the hat. It looked very scary, but I did my best not to panic. I cant possibly comment on rumours about gin. 

Anywayz, I made a start with some duplicate stitch over the top of some of dodgier areas, and to fill in the gaps in the smaller holes near the top of the hat. 

Once that was all fixed, I moved onto repairing the body of the hat. I ripped out the dodgy yarn and picked up stitches around the bottom of the hat. I needed to add some length back in to compensate for the bits lost through dodgy yarn and felting. It was all going so well. I was bossing it big style. I added a few more rounds and then set about grafting the new live stitches to the old live stitches of the brim. 

Me and old Kitchener are great friends, and I am sure (although I have never tried) that I could successfully graft a sock toe in near darkness. I set about the great graft. I took it steady, working on groups of 10 stitches at a time just to break it up a bit, and allow myself an opportunity to drink tea, wrangle children or put it down occasionally. I didn't think I would be able to guarantee a whole 6 hours of uninterrupted grafting that this would surely involve.

I did half of the grafting and then stopped for some family event (dinner maybe). After bed time, I picked up the hat again. I was going to nail this mother. I grafted and grafted and grafted. I sipped my drink, I admired my work. It was looking so good. I was down to the last 30 stitches, the last 20, the last .... 

Um. Something didn't look right. I looked again. I stopped. The knitting demons laughed and laughed. 

The remaining numbers of stitches did not match. It wasn't a fudgeable 1 or 2 stitch discrepancy it was EIGHT - 8! Eight whole stitches had somehow disappeared between the brim and the rest of the hat. 

I should have counted my stitches. I should have counted my stitches. 

There endeth today's lesson. 

to be continued... 

Scrap Hat (FO)

The year is getting off to a good start. The first FO has already sprung off the needles, and I managed a productive sewing session on Saturday (although nothing I can show you yet....) 

Here is the first FO of 2013, a scrap hat, which has been stolen by given to my dear husband. 

Pattern: scrap hat (own design)

Yarn: various oddments from the stash

Time taken: about a week

I made a similar hat as a Christmas gift for my brother - although the colour palette was almost entirely blue - and I failed to photograph it. It was his third scrap hat, and this is dear husband's second. I've got one too, and so have both the children, and my dad, and a few other select friends... There is something very satisfying about making these, and they go really quickly once you get going.

I'll set out the recipe sometime, so you can make your own...

Elving #2

More elving today.... This will be a hat for my brother, and those pink socks I showed you on Friday are now finished and safely stashed in the gift pile, and a small boy sock sprang off the needles as well today. Progress.

On the down side there is only one mince pie left....

Hats off... (FO)

I like to knit hats. It's one of the things that I have made consistently over the years. Jumpers, cardigans and socks all come and go, but hats just keep on.

A few years ago I devised a hat recipe which I have reknit many times. I've lost count now, but I think there are at least a dozen of these 'scrap' hats as I call them, wandering the hills and streets and places of this fair isle, and beyond (one lives in the US).

Occasionally a friend will place a kindly request for such a hat, and they will lodge in an ethereal queue until the urge to make a hat comes upon me. I was met with such an urge in the summer some time, and I made this lovely thing, with yarns carefully selected to complement the hair and beard of the intended recipient.

Unfortunately, for some unfathomable reason it came out too small for a large manly head.

Fortunately for the bean it was just right for him; so, it's now tucked neatly into one of our cupboards, waiting for the snow and ice to come...

I'll post the recipe some time, and you can make your own.

Round Up

Time for a little catch-up. Here are a few of the FOs from late 2009 and early 2010.

Scrap Hat (own design)

Child's banner - one of several birthday present projects for small boys in our family. Made with upcycled shirts, an old dress and some felt....

Green socks - generic top down pattern with grumperina stripe

Yarn - mainly Yarn Yard olive with some scraps of other green sock yarns to make up the pair.

Definitely non-identical twins.

Child's Cardigan (Rowan Family Collection)

FOs & WIP: three hats and a jam sandwich

Maybe it was the eco-buzz that started it, but over the weekend I had the urge to cast on for another scrap hat. This one was requested by my brother sometime last winter, but other things (you know: socks... baby things...er, things) have been getting in the way. I've been in a bit of a knitting funk with it, and have found it hard to put down, despite having to do mildly inconvenient things like go to work and sleep. Anyhoo, I'm now onto the crown shaping and will soon be at the top. I think - but I'm not sure - that my brother wanted his hat to come with a lining, so that will follow. Here's a sneak preview...



And here are the 2 baby beanies I mentioned last time, now safely filed in the gift stash.


Whatever our failings in the gardening department, our raspberries are a huge success. Day after day we pick the ripe red jewels, thanking heaven that something is growing and ripening in this confusion of a summer.... the bean has developed quite a taste for fresh raspberry, and now hangs about at the top of the lawn hoping that someone will pick some for him. At not quite 18 months he hasnt quite got the requisite skill or discernment required for picking rasps himself - but he knows how to eat them.

Last week we were running out of freezer space, so 2kg of berries were 'preserved' in the traditional way: as raspberry jam. Yum.


Shhhh......Can you hear it? There's a jam sandwich calling me. Better go.

while the cat's away

My husband is out. And I'm alone (not counting a sleeping baby bean) with lots of knitting, my stash and my knitting books. I've been having a lovely time.

on top of all that tonight we had our newly recovered sofa delivered. it's covered in a lovely pale green linen. probably not the best choice with a nearly walking and sticky of finger small boy in the house, but hey: why cant you be stylish and have children? people seem to manage it in the ikea catalogue.

sigh.

anyway, progress on the knitting front has been made. The second felix sweater went in the post to a small person who was one last week. The purl scarf for my brother's girlfriend is finished (just) and I also finished my husband's scrap hat. The lining worked out well in the end - after a bit of jiggery pokery. In fact it's so snug and warm that i'm tempted to 'borrow' it, if you know what i mean...