Charity Hat How To

I've made four hats so far and a fifth one is currently on the needles. Some gorgeous Knit Pro fancy wood DPNs that I treated myself to recently. Lovely to handle and hold and sooooo purty!

Anyhoo, onto the hats. I got a few balls of King Cole Merino blend yarn from the prints range. It's a 100% wool yarn and is self patterning. You can get a hat out of one ball with just a few yards left over so it's been ideal. The first hat (dark blue one) that I made, I cast on 96 stitches and it came out a bit on the small side. After that I decided to use 104 stitches instead and they came out a much better size

Cute hats for Operation Christmas Child

The hats are knitted in the round so no need to sew any seams. I used DK weight yarn and 4mm double pointed needles. If you want to make some here's what I did.

Cast on 104 stitches

Ribbing   K2P2 rib for 14 rows.  (To make it look a bit nicer I knitted through the back leg in the ribbing section so if you want to do the same it would be K2tblP2 rib)

Main body of the hat 
28 rounds stocking stitch

Crown
K6 K2tog around
Knit
K5 K2tog around
Knit
K4 K2tog around
Knit
K3 K2tog around
Knit
K2 K2tog around
Knit
K1 K2tog around
Knit
K2tog around
Knit

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches, pull tight to close the hole and darn in ends.

Should you decide to make hats smaller or larger you will need to decrease or increase the cast on by 8 stitches.  You could embellish the hat if the fancy takes you.  You might add a pom pop or make it a stripey hat.  It's up to you really.

Enjoy!