Worsted Big Fish Hat

A friend of mine asked if I could knit him a nice warm hat to wear fishing. He didn't really have any other specifications other than it might be black or brown, but definitely warm. I looked around a little for patterns and found this Big Fish hat pattern by Northern Purly Girl. I really liked the fish pattern, but I wanted to use Wool Ease Worsted instead of Wool Ease Thick and Quick, so I was going to have a completely different gauge.

It was time for...MATH!

After knitting a test swatch, measuring the gauge, and doing some figuring, I cast on 90 stitches using Wool Ease Oxford Grey (MC) and two size 8 circular needles and continued thusly:

Rnds 1-10: *k1, p1* ribbing
Rnds 11-13: Knit
Switch to Wool Ease Fisherman (CC2)**
Rnd 14: *k11, m1* repeat 8 times, end with k2 (98 sts)
Rnd 15: *k14, pm* repeat to end of round
Rnds 16-24: Using CC2 and Pines Print (CC1), follow chart in original pattern, repeating the pattern 7 times (Remember to knit loosely!)
Rnd 25-26: Knit with CC2**
Switch to MC
Rnd 27: Knit
Rnds 28-32: Knit
Rnd 33: *k12, k2tog* repeat to end of round (reducing round = 91 sts)
Rnd 34: Knit
Rnd 35: *k11, k2tog* repeat to end of round (84 sts)
Rnd 36: Knit
Rnd 37: *k10, k2tog* repeat to end of round (77 sts)
Rnd 38: Knit
Rnds 39-48: Continue alternating a reducing round (with one fewer stitch before the k2tog each time) and a regular knit round (Stitch count will be 70, 63, 56, 49, 42)
Rnd 49: *k4, k2tog* repeat to end of round (35 sts)
Rnd 50: *k3, k2tog* repeat to end of round (28 sts)
Rnd 51: *k2, k2tog* repeat to end of round (21 sts)
Rnd 52: *k1, k2tog* repeat to end of round (14 sts)
Use kitchener stitch to sew together remaining stitches.

**If I'd paid closer attention to Northern Purly Girl's pattern, I would have switched to Pines Print (CC1)

This made a lovely hat, but it was a little slouchy and decided that it was too thin to keep my fishing buddy warm enough. My daughter's friend quickly commandeered this first one, while I started over using a double-strand of yarn. I also used Black as my main color (MC) and Oxford Grey as my contrast color 2 (CC2). To avoid the slouchiness of the above hat, I cast on fewer stitches and ended with fewer rounds altogether. This gave me a nice snug hat.

C/o 84 with MC

Rnds 1-9: *k1, p1* ribbing
Rnds 10-12: Knit***
Rnd 13: *k12, k2tog* repeat to end of round (78)
Switch to CC2
Rnd 14: *k7, k2tog* repeat to end of round (70)
Rnd 15: *k14, pm* repeat to end of round
Rnds 16-24: Using CC2 and CC1, follow the chart in the original pattern, repeating the pattern 5 times
Rnd 25-26: Knit with CC2
Switch to MC
Rnd 27: *k10, pm*, removing markers that are in the wrong places
Rnd 28: *k8, k2tog* repeat to end of round (63)
Rnd 29: Knit
Rnds 30-37: Continue alternating a reducing round (with one fewer stitch before the k2tog each time) and a regular knit round (Stitch count will be 56, 49, 42, 35)
Rnd 38: *k3, k2tog* repeat to end of round (28)
Rnd 39: *k2, k2tog* repeat to end of round (21 sts)
Rnd 40: *k1, k2tog* repeat to end of round (14 sts)
Use kitchener stitch to sew together remaining stitches.

***At this point, I was worried that the hat was going to be too big again, so I did a couple of rounds to reduce the circumference. You might just c/o 70 st to start with and not reduce on rounds 13 & 14.

My Tiger Hat: a Hybrid pattern

My daughter saw a tiger hat on Shana Logic that she thought would be a good Christmas gift for a friend.  But instead of asking me for $40 to buy the hat, she asked me to just make one myself.  And excellent idea.  I wasn't completely happy with the look of the one on Shana Logic, so I surfed around for more ideas.  I tried Lion Brand's site - they have a lot of good free patterns - but I couldn't find what I wanted. And I searched Ravelry.  They had some cute ones, but I still wasn't satisfied.

I was imagining tiger stripes that got wider and narrower they way they really do on a tiger.  The idea of wider and narrower reminded me of a hat I made once from a Lion Brand pattern called "Famous Designer" Hat.  And I wanted earflaps and found Lion Brand's pattern for a Warm Up Hat that had them.  I decided to cobble these two patterns together using tiger stripe colors and adding ears at the end.

(I have more pictures on Flickr.)

Here's my pattern:

Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn: Terracotta, Black, and White colors - I used less than a half a skein of each color.
Needles: Size 9 circular needles
Gauge: 16 st = 4 in.

Earflaps
With Terracotta, cast on 3 sts.  Work in k1, p1 rib until piece measures 8 in., ending with a WS row. (I did 40 rows.)
Row 1 (RS): K1, (k1, yo, k1) into next st, k1 - 5 sts.
Row 2 and all WS rows: Purl.
Row 3: K2, (k1, yo, k1) into next st, k to end - 7 sts.
Row 5: K3, (k1, yo, k1) into next st, k to end - 9 sts.
Continue as in Rows 1, 3, and 5, increasing 2 sts in center st of each RS row until you have a total of 23 sts. ending with a WS row. Sl sts onto a holder.
Repeat for second Earflap, but do not sl sts to a holder.

Join for Hat
Continuing on same needle as second Earflap, with black, cast on 6 sts.
Next Row (Joining Row): K across cast-on sts, k23 Earflap sts, cast on 19 sts, k23 Earflap sts from holder, cast on 6 sts - 77 sts.

The above directions are all from Lion Brand's Warm Up Hat (small size).  At this point, I diverge, knitting in the round instead of in st st and using ideas from their Famous Designer Hat for my tiger stripe.

Divide stitches between two circular needles and join to work in the round.
Rnds 1-3: Knit, continuing with Terracotta

Stripes
Rnd 4: Switch to White, knit, adding one st near end by k1 f & b - 78 sts.
Rnd 5: Switch to Black, purl
Rnd 6: *K2, yo, k1, yo twice, k1, yo twice, k1, yo, k1, repeat from * 12 more times
Rnd 7: Knit in sts, letting yo slip off
Rnd 8: Switch to White, purl
Rnd 9: Switch to Terracotta, knit
Rnd 10: *K1, yo twice, k1, yo, k3, yo, k1, yo twice, repeat from * 12 more times
Rnd 11: Knit in sts, letting yo slip off
Rnd 12: Knit
Rnds 13 - 21: Repeat rnds 4 - 12

Shape Crown
Rnd 22: Switch to White, *k11, k2tog; repeat from * across - 72 sts.
Rnd 23: Switch to Black, purl
Rnd 24: *K6, k2tog; repeat from * across - 63 sts.
Rnd 25: Knit
Rnd 26: Switch to White, *p5, p2tog; repeat from * across - 54 sts.
Rnd 27: Switch to Terracotta, knit
Rnd 28: *K4, k2tog; repeat from * across - 45 sts.
Rnd 29: Knit
Rnd 30: Switch to White, *k3, k2tog; repeat from * across - 36 sts.
Rnd 31: Switch to Black, purl
Rnd 32: *K2, k2tog; repeat from * across - 27 sts.
Rnd 33: Knit
Rnd 34: Switch to White, *p1, p2tog; repeat from * across - 18 sts.
Rnd 35: Switch to Terracotta, knit
Rnd 36: K2tog across - 9 sts.
Rnd 37: Knit
Rnd 38: K2tog across, end k1 - 5 sts.
Cut yarn, pull tail through remaining st and pull to gather.

Ears: Make 2
For inner ears: using Black, c/o 14 loosely.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: Knit.
Slip each stitch over the first st.
Pull end of yarn through the first st.
Repeat for second Inner Ear.

For outer ears: using Terracotta, c/o 16 loosely.
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: Knit.
Row 4: Purl.
Slip each stitch over the first st.
Pull end of yarn through the first st.
Repeat for second Outer Ear.

With White, use Blanket Stitch to sew Black Inner Ear and Terracotta Outer Ear together.
Repeat for second Ear.
Sew Ears to crown.

Finishing
Work Blanket Stitch around entire edge of Hat and Earflaps using Black.
Weave in ends.
Make tassels using Black and Terracotta yarn.