Hat Knitting Spree

The last few months have found me knitting up a slew of quick and easy projects and somehow not blogging about any of them. Really none was quite worthy of it's own post, but together I think they are an interesting round up of hats.  

This all started with the Rainbow Sampler of Mighty Stitch yarn from Knit Picks that I used to knit Taco's rainbow sweater along with the addition of black yarn. 

I had loads of yarn left over which opened the door for all kinds of multi-colored knits. So, I knit...

One Roar, a Dinosaur Hat for Taco by Kate Oates, who has designed a ton of cute baby and child knitting patterns.

Naturally, I knit it in green and purple like Dragon the Hippo's dragon cape.

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For Halloween, I knit this adorable Minion Hat by Maura Houston. It was meant to be part of Taco's costume, but he steadfastly continues to not want to wear a costume at all. Toddlers.

I knit one purple cat hat for my 12 year old nephew who wants to resist but hates the color pink. Sigh. The pattern I used is the KitKat Hat by Andre Sue Knits.

I was enjoying hat knitting so much that I ordered some Bulky Mighty Stitch and knit up this sweet little apple hat for Little Green Orchid's baby-to-be.

Bulky yarn projects knit up so quickly, and babies are always a cause to celebrate. The pattern is the Sweet Sprout hat by Tranquil Cottage Knits. You are meant to turn the brim up for a newborn and then flip it down for a toddler.  I decided not to add the periodic purl stitches in the pattern.

Ahhh. And there you go. Fun and easy hats for kiddos. A few thoughts:

For all of these hats I used the Old Norwegian - aka German Twisted - cast on. In my hands, it is as stretchy as 1x1 rib, which is what you want for a hat or any other knit garment that needs an edge that stretches as much as the body.

On the two hats that I knit for Taco, I had to go up a size. He has a completely average size head for his age and my gauge was fine, but the brims of the hats seemed snug. So, I wonder if toddler sizing really is for the 1-2 year olds and not 2-3 year olds.

My hat knitting is far from done. I've started a few projects - hats and more - where I am specifically working on my stranded colorwork technique. The Rainbow Sampler really has taken my knitting in a new, fun and somewhat unexpected direction. So, more - and more complicated - will follow.  Stay tuned.