Pink and Red (Machine and Loom knitters)

(loom knitters see bottom of posting)

I made one with huge pompoms that was yellow and blue (scroll down to see it). I really didn't like it much till I saw a picture of my grandson, Tanner, with it on. Oh my how cute this is. As soon as Athea has edited it to her liking I will get a copy to post also. It is adorable.

So yesterday Athea tells me she is doing a prop exchange with a lady from one of her groups and asks me if I can make another of these hats.

I did a crocheted edge on that one not only to make it lay flat but to add the colors the way I did it. It only needed one round of crochet to take out a slight curl that was there.

On this pink and red hat the curl seemed to be worse. I used the same machine, same type of yarn, and same tension but one round of crochet wasn't working quite so well. So I decided to add a second round of single crochets and oh wow, I think it is so much prettier.

I am doing two sets of those large pompoms for it. One set will be less yarn to make it looser, and the other set is firmer. I do not attach my pompoms permanently. I like the person getting the hats to be able to remove them so they are not damaged in the wash. They can also choose to remove them to attach some other decoration to make the hat double itself as being slightly different.

MACHINE KNITTERS:

Anyway I wanted to tell you all how I did the hat. I used a bulky machine, the KH230 with red heart worsted weight yarn, TD8.5, COR

Ewrap cast on 15 needles with the first color and work for 80 rows, bind off with your favorite bind off (I use the gate peg bind off).

Leave a long tail for seaming at the beginning cast on, not at the end on both pieces.

Ewrap cast on 15 needles with the second color, same TD and type of yarn.

After casting on with the ewrap, take the first piece made and using the seam as you go, be sure to use the fallen sideways knot as it looks the best.

(See: http://heidisknitti ngroom.com/ Seam-as-you- go.htm for best instructions for the seam as you go that I could find on the net)

Pick up the first knot making sure the back side of the work is facing you, and place the first stitch on the end left needle.

Knit 2 rows ending with COR

Repeat till you reach your row 80

Now you are going to see a last little section on the first piece that doesn't connect to the rest, at least I have on both hats, if this is so on yours pick up that last stitch and place it on the last left needle, the do your cast off casting off two end stitches at once on that last needle.

Now fold the hat and seam up the side, I used the mattress stitch. Once the seaming is done single crochet around the edge using opposite color for each side. For one or two rows. If you want something like a shell crochet stitch, do decrease a couple of the knitted rows first or the hat winds up too large.

Make large pompoms and attach. You can make these permanent attachments or as I do I leave long tails and pull the tails through to bow tie on the insides so they are removable.

Hat completed and oh so cute, fast and easy, and something a bit different.

I will say those large pompoms do take a lot of yarn to make, so be aware of that.

To make the hats larger just increase the needle amounts, to make them smaller decrease. Take any hat pattern you do flat on the machine and figure the amounts of needles you need to use. For example for my one year old grandson I use 25 to the left, and 25 to the right on the bulky machine (he is a big boy).

Now understanding that this is a flat hat and must be seamed you know that 25 is going to be half of the hat for front and front sides, while the other 25 is for the other side.

So using the first 25 spilt it in half and you have 12.5. I move that to 13 and add two stitches for the side seaming. So 15 stitches.

For a hat of say 20 needles per side you would have 10+2 so cast on 12 stitches for one half. It is easy to figure out.

Be sure to decrease or increase rows knitted so as to adjust the size also.

You will knit the first half and it will look too small but remember you are going to add it to another half and it folds in half to make the hat.

Want to try something slightly different, then try placing the purl side on one section with the knit side on the other section. Oh how cute would that be. That is my next plan for this technique.

LOOM KNITTERS:

Now for you loom knitters, you can do the same thing as I did on the machine. Just make the first half of the hat casting on 1/4 of the normal amount of pegs. So if you are using the 36 peg green kk loom, use 9 pegs plus one or two extra for the seaming.

I know, you could cast on one half of the pegs twisting the colors as you go but you loose something of the middle seam look as you do that, still that is another option for you. You could cast on 18 pegs plus a couple for seaming, say ten pegs with one color and 10 pegs with the other color, be sure to twist the colors as you drop one and pick up the other to knit with it.

If you choose the first way you are going to knit this half for double what you would normally do your hat, then cast off, do not gather cast off but use a flat bind off.

Now you would start the second color and as in the machine knitted one you would pick up a stitch off the side seam of the first section to place on the needle opposite end of the working yarn. Knit two rows and repeat. With the larger gauged loom you might have to use two strands of yarn but with a bulky weight use only one.

If doing it the second way just keep twisting your pickup till the hat is as long as you need it, then cast off, fold in half and seam it up the sides.

Complete the edging and pompoms and you have an easy cute hat for that person you have in mind.

Oh a hint, did you know the seam as you go can also be used to attach one panel of an afghan to the next panel. Then you do not have to worry so much about getting those panels all the same size as you are making that happen as you knit.

You also do not have a huge ridge on those panels.