It’s Cold Out There! Time to Knit a Hat

I will freely admit that I’m not much of a hat person. I like knitting hats, I just don’t like wearing them that much. The exception might be this fisherman’s rib hat I knit recently, which is so squishy and stretchy it doesn’t feel like wearing a hat at all. We’ll see if I manage to keep wearing it through the winter.

I feel like I share a lot of hat knitting patterns (most recently this roundup of colorwork hats) but there’s always more to see, and knit hats are a great way to pick up new techniques.

For example, get practice twisting stitches on purpose with the Paradise Slouch Hat from Stacey Winklepleck. This free pattern on Knit Picks uses one skein of DK weight superwash merino, and has an extra wide twisted rib brim you can fold over or wear slouchy.

Use all your stash of leftover sock yarn to make a super cozy hat with Wool & Pine. The Bindle Hat uses four strands of fingering weight yarn held together using a modified Latvian braid technique. The brim is worked in the round and the body is worked flat, with short row shaping to give a good fit in the crown. Just writing about it makes me want to try it! You can find this pattern — sized for kids and adults — on Ravelry.

Try your needles at some simple cables with this cable knit beanie worked in worsted weight yarn from Jinxed Stitches Knits. This hat features a deep folded brim and easy cables, and you have the option of making a matching pompom when you’re done with the knitting.

Or if you’re ready to learn colorwork, try the bulky Isla Hat from Whimsy North with its simple chevron stripes. The pattern is charted but the design is pretty simple. It uses five colors and comes in four sizes.

I don’t know that there’s any special techniques involved in the Girlfriend Beanie from My Hooking Addiction. It looks like a pretty straightforward ribbed hat. But it uses my favorite colorway of Wool Ease Thick and Quick so I just had to share (see also my knit vest).

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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