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]

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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