Friday, July 2, 2010

Huffy Hat

I made this "huffy hat" in about 3 hours, which is probably a record for me. I call it the huffy hat as that is the childhood nickname for my stepdad, Richard, who this hat (and scarf when complete) will be for.

He is probably one of the few males in my life that will appreciate a hand made gift like this as he's got his own artsy side as well. My stepfather, Rich, has been a great father-figure in my life, and I say figure as I do have a Dad that is wonderful also, although I'm not sure he'd wear a hat that I knit. Huffy would. I am also known to him endearingly as "muffy"... so the name seemed appropriate.

I used a city tweed in chocolate that I bought on sale at knitpicks.com for about 3.99 a ball. I used size 7 circulars and cast on 72 stitches. After joining in the round, I followed the ribbing pattern of K2, P2 for about 9 inches. I have found that making really long hats works well as they can be folded over and can still cover the tops of ears.

I used a new decrease pattern I found and it turned out pretty cool, which is why I wanted to share this new design. The scarf will follow, at some point...

Any type/color of worsted-weight yarn (try several colors, and do stripes if you like!), cast on 72 st, and do the rib stitch (described above) for desired length (again, I like them long). To start decrease:

First: (This is the beginning of the cast off): k.2, k2 tog, repeat to end of row
Next row: purl
Next row: * k.1, k2 tog to end of row
Next row: purl*
Continue * *until there are 7-10 stitches left on the needle.

Sew in a circular pattern picking up all leftover stitches and wind through top of design to hide the end. That's all she wrote.