Tiny Hearts Hat

A month or two ago, my Aunt Charlotte sent me a big box of yarn she'd had on-hand for years. Full of skeins from both her mother and my grandmother, this is the type of box of acrylic many knitters would simply get rid of - scratchier yarn from decades past, in some amazingly bright colors.

I'm not one of those knitters, though. I know that one turn in the wash machine and whatever I've made will soften up tremendously. I also couldn't wait to knit with yarn that had that much history; thinking of my grandmother picking these colors out at the store was such a great image!

I immediately grabbed the one skein of cranberry in the stash and paired it up with some white yarn to make the Tiny Hearts Hat. These are skeins that are begging for a bit of color work, and I wanted something I could make on repeat, remember easily, and would work well with both traditionally girl and boy colors, as well as working with some really bright skeins.

The Tiny Hearts Hat is the perfect on all these points. It's a great introduction to stranded color work, as you only work the second color every other row, and you don't decrease with both colors (instead using only the main color). The hat can be made for boys and girls, men and women, thanks to the gender-neutral patterning; this means I'll be able to work hat after hat with this "vintage" yarn without thinking.

The pattern is written for a beanie style hat, but simply adding a few extra rows of color work before decreases will increase the slouch! I love the beanie look, but I can't help myself and so often make slouchy hats. When donating, as I will with these hats, I also tend to make the ribbing section a bit longer; that way the slouchy hat can be made a fitted beanie with a simple turn up of the brim.

YARN

Two skeins Lion Brand Wool Ease (80% acrylic 20% wool; 197 yards/180 meters per 85 grams)

You will use about half of one skein for MC, approximately 40 yards CC

Feel free to substitute in any worsted or aran weight yarn – most big box craft store worsted weight (size 4) yarns will work for this hat.

NEEDLES

Size US 7 / 4.5mm 16" circular needle
Size US 9 / 5.5mm 16" circular needle
Size US 9 / 5.5mm dpns

NOTIONS

darning needle
stitch marker

GAUGE

4 sts x 4 rows = 1" in color work pattern

SIZES

newborn (baby, toddler, child, adult)
12 (14, 16, 18, 20)" circumference un-stretched


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