Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Sam Hat

I wanted to make the city girl hat, which is a crochet pattern, but I wanted to knit it because at the time I couldn't crochet to save my life. So after figuring out how to make it, and having it halfway done, I frogged the project completely. It just so happened that I was knitting it while watching Rock of Love and one of the girls on the show (Sam) was wearing a similar hat that had a swirled rib pattern. I decided immediately that I wanted my hat to look like that, so I got to work. 3 days later, I had The Sam Hat. Then, I figured out the pattern after a few requests.





The Pattern
Ok So I managed to gather all of my notes that I have written down while making this hat (trust me, not an easy task as I manage to just jot stuff down anywhere I feel like it and it ends up everywhere lol) So hopefully this is good and isn't terribly confusing or off the mark from what I did. I've written up the patterns in the size hat to fit my head (23" head) but I've included the gauge so you can easily figure out how many stitches you personally need if your head isn't as large as my gigantic melon is. Although you need to keep your stitches as a multiple of 11 to work with the K3, P8 ribbing

Supplies:
1 Skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Grey
Size 8 US 16" Circular needles
Size 8 US needles
Size 8 US Double Pointed Needles
Plastic Mesh
Stitch Markers
Yarn Needle

Gauge: 22 Sts and 28 Rows = 4" in rib pattern

To begin, CO 110 stitches, place a marker and join the round. Begin hat by working 1/2" of seed stitch.

After you've reached 1/2" of seed stitch, you begin working the wide rib pattern. Rib pattern is K3, P8 repeated ten times across the round.
To get the rib pattern to spiral/swirl, you want to shift it on every 5th round. Rounds 1-4: (K3, P8) 10 times
Rounds 5-8: P1, (K3, P8) 9 times, K3, P7
Rounds 9-12: P2, (K3, P8) 9 times, K3, P6
Rounds 13-16: P3, (K3, P8) 9 times, K3, P5
(Essentially, on every 5th row you will take a P stitch from the last repeat of the pattern and put it at the front of the row, shifting the pattern over one stitch. If you want a more dramatic swirl, you could shift it more frequently or shift 2 stitches instead of one).
Follow this pattern until your hat measures 5 1/2" from the bottom up.

Once your hat measures that long, you're ready to begin decreasing. (A note about the decreasing section: While I decreased, I also maintained the shifting pattern every 5 rows. You can do this or you can just decrease it as it should give it a bit of a swirl on it's own. Since my pattern isn't exact to the row, I didn't include the shifting pattern in this section. So just do your best if you include it with the decreases.)

Remember, switch to DPNs when necessary to ease knitting!

On first decrease round, you're going to P2Tog at the start of every other group of Purl stitches beginning with the first group of 8.
Knit the next round normal.
On the next row, P2Tog at the start of every other group of Purl stitches on the groups of 8. When done, you'll now have a rib pattern of K3, P7.
Knit the next round normal.
On the next round, P2Tog at the start of every other group of Purl stitches beginning with the first group of 7
Knit the next round normal
On the next round, P2Tog at the start of every other group of Purl stitches on the groups of 7. When done, you'll now have a rib pattern of K3, P6.
On the next round, you're going to do another decrease row by P2Tog at the start of every other group of 6 Purls. Repeat this on the next Round
After the double decrease round, you should have K3, P5 ribbing, so K2tog at the beginning of every K3 on this round. (so the pattern will be K2, P5).
On next round, P2Tog at beginning of every P5 group. (Pattern will then be K2, P4)
On next round, K2tog on every K2 group and P2tog at beginning of every P4 group. (Pattern will then be K1, P3).
On next round, P2tog at every P3 group (pattern will then be K1, P2)
On next round, Purl the knit stitches and P2Tog on the P2 groups, so you will be left with 20 Purl stitches on your needles.
On next round, P2Tog across the row. (You should have 10 Stitches left)
Repeat last round, P2Tog across the row (You should then have 5 stitches left)
BO stitches and sew up small hole on top of hat.

Brim (Based on Vickie Howell's brim for Brimster)

Using your straight 8 Needles, pick up 40 stitches on bottom edge of hat and knit them.
Row 2: Purl all sts
Row 3: Knit all sts
Row 4: Purl all sts.
Row 5: K2tog, K to last 2 sts, SSK.
Row 6: P2tog, P to last to sts SSP
Row 7: Knit all sts.
Row 8: Purl all sts.
Row 9: Repeat Row 5
Row 10: Repeat Row 6
Row 11: K2tog (twice), K to last 4 sts, SSK (twice)
Row 12: P2tog (twice), P to last 4 sts, SSP (twice)
Row 13: Repeat Row 11
Row 14 (turning ridge): Knit all sts.
Row 15: (K1, inc1) twice, K to last 2 sts, (inc1, K1) twice.
Row 16: (P1, inc1) twice, P to last 2 sts, (inc1, P1) twice.
Row 17: Repeat Row 15
Row 18: Purl all sts.
Row 19: K1, inc1, K to last st, inc1, K1.
Row 20: P1, inc1, P to last st, inc1, P1.
Row 21: Knit all sts.
Row 22: Purl all sts.
Row 23: Repeat Row 19
Row 24: Repeat Row 20
Rows 25-28: Repeat rows 21-22 (twice)
Bind off.

Finishing
Using the brim you knitted, lay it over plastic mesh and use that as a guide for the brim. Trace it with a pen or marker and cut it out.

Using your leftover yarn and yarn needle, sew up side seams on the brim with the purl stitches facing out. Insert the mesh piece and then sew up the bottom edge of the brim (I like to sew it thru not only the yarn, but also thru some of the mesh to give it a bit more stability).

Then basically all you have to do is weave in the loose ends, block it if you feel it needs it (mine didn't) and that's about it.

No comments: