V's Baby Hats

One of my roommates from university days is expecting her first baby in the next couple of weeks. She doesn't read the blog, but saw on Facebook that I knit a lot and asked me to make her a yellow hat as a keepsake for the new baby. I was so excited for her - even when we were living together in 1997 she was unable to have children. All these years later, what she thought would never be, has happened - I'm almost as happy as she is.


I wanted it to be a gift from me but she refused, shuddering at the crassness of asking for her own baby gift, and insisted on sending me money. I immediately decided that she'd be getting not just the yellow hat she'd wanted, but a pink and a blue one too.


The yellow one came together fast. I like it but I did briefly wonder whether it was a little too feminine for a gender-neutral garment...in the end I figured it was fine - if there's a dude around who can carry off a picot-edged bonnet, he is definitely a newborn.

Note: Hat title links are to the Ravelry project page.



Yellow Hat
Yarn: Mandarin Petit 100% cotton
Needle: 3mm bamboo circular, magic loop
Pattern: No pattern, but based on a baby hat I saw on the web somewhere. It's a simple picot cast-on, a bit of garter, and one eyelet row. I used a five-point decrease for the crown.



Pink Hat
Yarn: Lana Grossa New Cotton, 60% cotton, 40% microfiber
Needle: 4mm bamboo circular, magic loop
Pattern: No pattern. Made up a travelling rib using yarnovers as the increase and SSK as the decrease. Crown decreases in pattern to a swirl top.



Blue Hat
Yarn: Patons Bumblebee Baby Cotton, 100% cotton
Needle: 3.5mm bamboo circular, magic loop
Pattern: No pattern. Moss stitch with a four-point double-decrease every row to make a square top.

I love crown decreases.


Those finished, I wanted to make a cuddlier one, a hat that would really keep the little blighter warm. I took some Classic Al from the stash, leftovers from my father-in-law's Christmas sweater, and cast on some rib to knit this:


White Hat
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al (50% Alpaca, 50% Merino)
Needle: 4 and 4.5mm bamboo circulars, magic loop
Pattern: No pattern. Used a closed cable from Continuous Cables, changed it up a bit to fit a rib better. Crown decreases in pattern to a four-stitch i-cord for three inches. I-cord is knotted to finish.

Crown decreases and i-cord.


I'm a little bit pleased with myself for coming up with a way to make the cables flow up through the crown decreases and into the i-cord with no interruption...it's very gratifying that it worked out, first time too. I am writing up the pattern for this hat and once I figure out how to do up the chart for download, I'll post it here on the blog. It's such a cute little thing, I couldn't just keep it all to myself.