A Hat Knitting Pattern for Big Hair

Most knit hats are made for what you might call “standard” sized heads, which don’t account for having a lot of hair. Whether because you have lots of curly hair, wear locs, have braids, etc., you might find that standard hat knitting patterns just don’t fit with your style.

Fatimah Hinds discovered she had this problem, and the Big Hair Much Care hat was born. She says she found that most knit hats are too short to cover her ears once they’ve covered her head, or if they’re meant to be “slouchy” they end up being loose and uncomfortable and just not very warm.

Her design is completely customizable based on what you need for optimal head comfort. The brim is deep, but it’s also worked flat and not seamed so you can wear it open at the back if you need to and it will still keep your ears warm. If you don’t need as much space you can pin the brim together, giving you an opportunity to use a pretty pin or a fun button on your hat.

It can be styled with hair tucked into the hat or not, depending on your preference.

The top of the hat is worked in the round and the pattern has information on how to customize it to fit your hair.

The hat is worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held double for extra warmth, and can be worked with two colors or using up your leftover yarn from other projects. Or try a DK weight yarn instead if you can get gauge that way.

You can get this pattern from Ravelry.

[Photo: Fatimah Hinds.]

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

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