In Search of the Perfect Hat

There are a few things I dislike about wearing a hat. First, after placing a hat on my head I truly dislike the feel of my hair hanging below the brim; tickling and rubbing up against my neck. Leaving my hair to roam loosely beneath a knitted garment usually results in it finding its way to the front of the hat to dangle in my face. (Another location that I do not like my hair to be.) Of course, an easy solution for this would be to pull my hair back in ponytail. However, I find it very uncomfortable to have all of my very thick hair bound in one spot underneath my hat invoking Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. My hair needs to be free, not pushing against the back of my head, and out of my face. Hmmmm….

My solution in the past was a wonderful ski hat with a velcro back that not only allowed adjustment for head size, but also left a nifty hole for my ponytail. Needless to say the velcro has worn and a new hat is needed. So, I decided to knit one myself. Other than some basic hats I knit with chunky yarn over a year ago, I haven’t really attempted any other.

I found a huge collection of free hat patterns on the Internet, many of which came from Knitting Central.com and also purchased a great book called, Knit Hats! 15 Cool Patterns to Keep You Warm. I decided to knit the basic Watch Cap from page 22 this book. My reason for choosing this hat is that it is a simple knit done on two needles, thus allowing for a seam in the back where a hole for my ponytail could be created. Perfect.

The pattern suggested a Brown Sheep Praire Silk, worsted, with a #7 and #6 needle. Guage is 20 st=4″. I used the Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride, worsted. (My favorite yarn at this point in time.) In order to obtain gauge, I knitted straight on my #5 and #4 Addi Turbo circular needles.

While one color was suggested for this knitting project, I decided to try adding stripes (my first experience with this also) with yarn from past projects. This is an easy hat to knit (really) and was started and completed with two evenings of knitting and a snow day from school. For extra warmth, I stitched in a lining of fleece and was ready to test my creation.

Our inclement weather created the perfect condition for a trial run. This hat kept my head exceptionally warm and thanks to my little ponytail hole, my hair was bound, out of my face, and not pressing against the back of my head. Wonderful! It doesn’t quite cover my ears as much as I would like, but for a first try, this hat was a success. I look forward to attempting more!