Book Review: Knit Hats with Woolly Wormhead

Woolly Wormhead is known for her fun and colorful hat knitting patterns, and 22 of her designs are collected in Knit Hats with Woolly Wormhead.

The patterns are arranged by size/gender: 5 for kids, 5 for men and 12 for women. But of course women would be happy to wear the “men’s” hats, and some of the women’s hats would be great for guys as well. (Having written books I totally understand needing to have some kind of organizing conventions, but it’s still worth noting a lot of these patterns would be nice for a variety of heads and the patterns all give a wide range of sizes.)

The designs are often not what you’d consider traditional. They’re often worked from side to side rather than top down or bottom up. There’s a lot of colorwork, lace, cables and textured knitting.

But if you’re going to knit hats they might as well be fun, right?

Some of my favorites include Scourie, a side to side colorwork pattern with a sort of leaf-shapes design; Chevron, a beanie with a zig-zag textured stitch; and Wychavon, a Garter Stitch hat with a brim that folds up and is held in place with buttons.

You can check out all the projects on Ravelry.

Hats are fun to knit because they don’t take a lot of yarn or time and are a great way to play with new techniques. You will definitely find some new to you options in this book and have a good time keeping everyone’s head warm.

About the book: 136 pages, 22 patterns, paperback. Published July 2021 by Stackpole Books. Suggested retail $24.95.

If your family is the sort to do a turkey trot for Thanksgiving, or even just to take family pictures, you’ll want to get started knitting up some Turkey Sack Hats with this pattern from Underground Crafter.

The pattern uses super bulky yarn and is rated easy. It’s knit flat but there are a few skills in here around the shaping of the eyes, which includes changing colors, working bobbles and doing a wicked purl 3 together decrease. Twice.

But that’s all in one row, and the rest of it is pretty simple. The beak is worked separately and sewn on, and the side of the hat is stitched up to make it into a hat.

What’s great about this one is that it comes in 10 sizes, ranging from newborn to adult large, so you really can make one for everyone in the family. And because it uses super bulky yarn you can knit a bunch pretty quickly if that’s a thing you’d like to do.

It’s also fun because you could use this base pattern to make different animals or for different holidays. Make it all in orange and stitch on a jack o’lantern face for Halloween, or make a white one that’s a snowman, for example.

In any style this would also be a fun gag gift for that person in your life who has everything or doesn’t want gifts, or if you do a secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange at work or elsewhere.

And make sure whether you’re making it a turkey or some other character that you include the pom poms at the top! They’re just so cure and a great way to add a bit more color to the project, and they’re easy to make. (See also: ways to make a pompom with yarn.)

You can grab the free pattern at the Underground Crafter website.

[Photo: Underground Crafter]

Have you read?