"ELFIE" The Charity Hat

This year's charity is Elves & More of West Michigan.

We have SO much donated yarn at the shop that people have generously brought into the shop for our charity knitting! We thank you! A lot of the yarn is thinner weight yarns (like fingering) so here is a hat pattern to make use of the thinner weight yarns AND do something nice for charity!

"ELFIE" The Charity Hat

Size: Baby (Toddler, Child, Women, Men) = 

        12 (14, 16, 18, 20) inches in circumference by 

        5 (6.5, 7.5, 8.5, 9.5) inches high approx

Average Head Sizes

·         Newborn 13 – 14”

·         0-3 months 14 – 15”

·         3-6 months 14 – 17”

·         6-12 months 16 – 19”

·         1-3 years 18 – 20”

·         3-10 years 19 – 20.5”

·         Pre-teen/Teen 20.5 – 22”

·         Adult female 21.5 – 22.5”

·         Adult male 23 – 24”

Materials: worsted weight yarn for the brim only

              2 or 3 kinds of any yarn any weight, balled together to knit as one

              10 (6.0mm) 32" cable circular needles for Magic Loop Method

              10 (6.0mm) 16" cable circular needles or DPN

               

Gauge: When combining the various yarns, you want to achieve the thickness of bulky weight or super bulky weight yarn. The hat heights are approx. Everybody's head is different. I like to wear my hats over my ears so I tend to make them longer.

Instructions:

CO 32 (42, 52, 62, 72) stitches with the worsted weight yarn in your preferred cast on method with the circular needles. I use the single cast on or the backward loop cast on. Video on Knittinghelp.com here. This gives a stretchier edge for the hat. And really, do you want a crease on your head? You can also use the long-tail cast on. It still give a stretchy edge. 

Place a stitch marker. Join in the round. Be careful not to twist! You are starting with the solid or one strand of worsted weight yarn. As you cast on, hold your cast on row to the bottom. There are only 52 stitches. You can do it!

Start the brim with a ribbing of K2P2 all around for at least an inch or whatever length you want hugging your head. After you get your desired band width, add your second colorway. 

Depending on the thickness of the combined yarn, you can either keep knitting with the size 10 needles or switch to a bigger size. A bigger size needle will accommodate the thicker yarn but will also make the hat bigger. This will give your hat more of a tam or slouch look. Keep knitting in stockinette until the hat is the desired length. 

To decrease, k2tog until you have about 5 st. You will need to switch to dpns to finish. 

To cinch the top, insert right needle into stitch on left needle as if to knit and wrap working yarn, pull yarn all the way through. Drop stitch from left. You are not creating a stitch. You are pulling the working yarn through the stitch so your project doesn't unravel. 

Another decrease I like to do is to is a spiral decrease. Here is a spiral decrease for the child hat that you cast on 52st. 

Row 1 *k11, k2tog, repeat from *

Row 2 *k10, k2tog, repeat

Row 3 *k9, k2tog, repeat 

Row 4 *k8, k2tog, repeat

Row 5 *k7, k2tog, repeat

Row 6 *k6, k2tog, repeat

Row 7 *k5, k2tog, repeat

Row 8 *k4, k2tog, repeat

Row 9 *k3, k2tog, repeat

Row 10 *k2, k2tog, repeat

Row 11 *k1, k2tog, repeat

On the last row, pull the yarn through the remaining loops to cinch them closed. This method will add more rows to your hat so start the spiral decrease about 2" short of the desired hat height. (Depending on gauge)

Every pattern is a recipe to be tweaked.