After being contacted by The Irish Premature Baby Charity I went off looking for ‘basic’ knitting patterns and was bogged down by how many were out there.  Many of them seem to be perfectly lovely, but some of them needed to be paid for or had a suggested donation and we’re already making them for charity aren’t we?

So I grabbed some needles and some double knit and knocked one up myself.  You will discover that the hat is a little higher than we would usually knit, this is to accommodate the little babas’ heads, which can sometimes be a little oddly shaped.

Hat Dimensions

Height 5.5″/11.5cm

Width 4.5″/14cm

Tension

22sts x 28 rows

Abbreviations

k – knit

p – purl

st(s) – stitch(es)

ws – wrong side

k2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together

Materials

A little squidgy, soft double knit

4mm Needles

Darning Needle

Pattern

Using thumb method cast on 56 stitches.

Work 4 rows in 2×2 rib – (knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches )

In stocking stitch work  until hat measures 10cms ending with a ws row.

Crown

1st Row – K6, k2tog across all sts (49 sts)

2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th  rows – Purl all stitches

3rd Row – K5, k2tog across all sts (42 sts)

5th Row – K4, k2tog across all sts (35sts)

7th Row – K3, k2tog across all sts (28sts)

9th Row – K2, k2tog across all sts (21sts)

11th Row – K1, k2tog across all sts (14sts)

Cut yarn leaving approximately a 12″ tail, using your darning needle thread the yarn through your remaining stitches and remove them from the knitting needle.  Fasten off and sew up using yarn.  Sew in ends.