Make an Easy Loom Knit Hat

If you don’t already know how to knit hats using knitting needles, you might be a bit intimidated by them. Of course if you don’t want to mess with circular knitting needles you can always knit flat hats and sew up the side, but if you want a seamless hat with a knit look, a great way to go is to use a knitting loom.

Knitting looms come in various sizes to make different kinds of projects. They are usually made of plastic or wood and consist of a base with notched pegs sticking up from the top. You wrap your yarn around the one peg on the side to anchor it, then wrap the yarn twice around each peg, pull one stitch over the other and continue until your project is the size you want.

That’s the super abbreviated version, but if you need more details check out the pattern for loom knit hats from AB Crafty.

This project uses an adjustable loom, which is a fun thing to have because you can lock different pieces together to make different sizes and shapes for different kinds of projects. But you can do this with a standard sized round knitting loom as well (they come in different sizes for different sizes of heads).

This loom knit hat pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and it shows making a stripe at the bottom, which you can do, or make it a solid color if you would rather. Once you have the basics of this easy knitting method down, you can add as many stripes as you want to make a full on stash busting project, or do a contrasting top or bottom section to make it a little more fun.

You can grab the free pattern from AB Crafty, and they have a loom knit hat sizing chart you can get when you enter your email address, which would be super handy to have if you plan on making a lot of loom knit hats.

[Photo: AB Crafty]

Sometimes when I’m scrolling through Ravelry a pattern will catch my eye as much because of the name as the look of the design (which is a little hard to see in those little thumbnails sometimes, anyway).

So it was with the Stellify shawl by Paola Albergamo. Stellify means to turn into a star, and the name and the story behind the shawl come from the story of Ariadne. The better known part of her story is that she helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur, but he then abandoned her. What comes after in many stories is that Dionysus found her, fell in love with her and later married her.

When he threw her jeweled crown into the sky, the Corona Borealis constellation was formed.

What does all this have to do with shawl knitting?

The shawl itself looks like it has a scattering of stars on it, as if it, too, has been stellified. The shawl begins with an I-cord tap and is shaped into a triangular shawl with both lateral and central increases. I-cord edging is incorporated into the sides, and the colorwork is done with mosaic knitting, which means this shawl is easier than it looks.

Mosaic knitting has you working with just one color per row, slipping stitches that appear in the other color to make the colorwork visible. Even better for people new to this kind of colorwork, the pattern includes written and charted instructions throughout so it should be easy to follow along.

The pattern comes in two sizes (the larger one is shown here) and calls for two colors of fingering weight yarn. It looks great in black and yellow, but don’t miss the other projects on Ravelry to see other fun and beautiful color options.

You can find the pattern in English and Italian on Ravelry.

[Photo: Paola Albergamo]

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