Book Review: The Art of Knitting Hats

Hats are a great canvas on which to try just about any knitting technique. They’re relatively small and quick to knit, and everyone can use a hat, right?

Courtney Flynn shares 30 designs for colorwork hats in her book The Art of Knitting Hats, which is a good place to start if you’ve never knit hats before.

All of the hats are worked from the bottom up in the round and have charted colorwork designs that repeat across the circumference of the hat. They’re all worked in worsted, bulky or super bulky yarns. Sixteen of the patterns are rated easy and the other 14 are intermediate.

The patterns vary from geometrics and chevrons to flowers, trees and seasonal designs like acorns, skulls and hearts. Patterns have either one adult size or one adult and one child size.

Many of the patterns only use two colors, but there are some that use three or more (up to six, though some patterns have options for using more or fewer colors as you like). Some patterns are designed to be worked with multicolored or tonal yarn, while others do better with solids. The author encourages knitters to go their own way with color choices and view each hat as a work of art.

Each pattern includes a section of tips for visualizing your project and getting started, which is helpful if you’re not done a lot of (or any!) colorwork knitting before and you aren’t sure how to pick colors.

For instance the Bonfire patter, which uses a multicolored yarn for the background and a solid color for the flame motif, suggests picking a tonal yarn with red, orange and yellow hues for the background but says you could use cooler colors for a different look. She advises ensuring that your background color doesn’t include any of the color you pick for the design so that it will be easy to see and not bleed into the background.

The book includes an introduction to colorwork knitting including chart reading, yarn management and dealing with floats, so if you’ve never done stranded knitting before this book is a good place to start.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 30 patterns. Published 022 by Page Street Publishing Co. Suggested retail price $23.99.

Next Pattern:

Knitters are always looking for ways to continue to knit and to wear their knits even when it’s hot outside, so there are tots of great T0shirt knitting patterns to choose from. I love knitting short-sleeved shirts because they feel so much faster than sweaters, and you can wear them on top of dresses or even longer-sleeved items when it gets cooler.

There are lots of different styles of knit tops, from the basic to the more detailed. On the more basic side are things like the Perfect T-Shirt from Originally Lovely, a basic raglan tee with nine sizes and worked in worsted weight yarn; Paper Bloom by Yvonne Hugo (free on Ravelry), available in six sizes and worked with cotton and silk yarn for extra coolness; or Iris H’s Amelia Top, also on Ravelry, a slim fit, DK weight top with nine size.

Jazz it up with a bit of lace like on the Athens Lace Hem top by Sarah Hatton (Ravelry). This otherwise simple project has a bit of lace at the bottom, which is an easy way to make a project more interesting without a ton of work. This one uses fingering weight yarn and comes in nine sizes.

Another simple embellishment is to emphasize the lines of your top with different stitches. The Spring Lines top uses twisted ribbing at the center front and V-neck and along the raglan lines to give it a slimmer fit and more interest. This design from Turquoise Toque Designs has 11 size options and is available on Ravelry.

Silfurberg by Joji Locatelli uses both of these elements, with lace panels at the center front and back and purl ridges throughout to make it a little more fun to knit and to wear. The pattern uses fingering weight yarn and comes in 10 sizes. Learn more on Ravelry.

Keep it simple or add puffed sleeves (and/or long sleeves) to the slim fit Knitty Committee top by Lily Kate France. This one has two length options, waist shaping and optional bust darts to fulfill all your curvy top dreams, and it comes in nine sizes. You’ll find it on Ravelry.

Take it even more romantic with the Daphne Top from Friday Knits, which has puffed sleeves and applied I-cord to emphasize the bust and sweetheart neckline. It comes in eight sizes and uses DK weight yarn.

Or add some sweet flowers with the Gigio pattern from Emilie Luis. This pretty pattern found on Ravelry has cable panels running up the front with the option for adding sweet embroidered flowers. You can also add decorative buttons if you like. It comes in 11 sizes and calls for sport weight yarn.

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