Made a colour block hat in bright pink this week­end :D

I usu­al­ly don’t wear bright pink, it’s kind of out­side my com­fort zone, but it’s quite uplift­ing in Feb­ru­ary, where the days are short, grey, cold and snowy.

It incor­po­rates the fish­er­man rib pat­tern that I learned from Purl Soho. The stitch makes an extra squishy fab­ric that’s very cozy for a hat. The hat is worked flat and then seamed. The result­ing fab­ric is also quite stretchy, and I imag­ine the hat will stretch as it is being worn, so the stitch count is con­ser­v­a­tive, and it fits my head com­fort­ably (21″ in cir­cum­fer­ence). But I’ve also includ­ed instruc­tion for a larg­er size in parenthesis.

What I used:

Red Heart Soft Essen­tials in Peony (bulky) — one skein

Con­trast­ing bulky weight yarn (I actu­al­ly used Issac Mizrahi Lex­ing­ton yarn in Irv­ing, it’s a super bulky yarn that I untwist­ed, or split into 2 strands, and only used one strand at a time. It was a very time con­sum­ing, bor­ing task, so I would sug­gest just using a reg­u­lar bulky yarn, unless you’re in love with the Issac Mizrahi yarn like I was.)

6 mm straight needles

Tapes­try needle

Toi­let paper roll and scis­sors (for pom pom)

Pat­tern:

CO 56 (60) with pink.

Fol­low fish­er­man rib pat­tern for scarf until piece is 4″ from beginning.

Attached con­trast­ing yarn, break off pink, and con­tin­ue in pat­tern until piece is 6″ in length (or desired length, i.e. 7–8″ if you want a bit of a slouch)

Larg­er size only:

Row 1: *work in pat­tern for 8 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 2: work in pattern.

Row 3: *work in pat­tern for 7 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 4: work in pattern.

For all sizes, con­tin­ue as follows:

Row 1: *work in pat­tern for 6 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 2: work in pattern.

Row 3: *work in pat­tern for 5 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 4: work in pattern.

Row 5: *work in pat­tern for 4 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 6: work in pattern.

Row 7: *work in pat­tern for 3 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 8: work in pattern.

Row 9: *work in pat­tern for 2 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 10: work in pattern.

Row 11: *work in pat­tern for 1 st, p2 tog* repeat from * to * to end.

Row 12: work in pattern.

Row 13: p2 tog to end. 

Leave a long tail for sewing a break off yarn, weave yarn tail through remain­ing stitch­es, cinch tight­ly and tie off. With wrong side out, use remain­ing yarn tail to sew up seam until pink sec­tion. Fas­ten off con­trast­ing colour yarn tail. Using pink yarn, sew up the rest of the seam in pink sec­tion. Fas­ten off and weave in ends. 

Pom pom making

Flat­ten a toi­let paper roll, and used the flat­tened roll to make the pom pom as if it is a square of card­board. This blog post has a nice pho­to tuto­r­i­al.

As you shape the pom pom, leave the yarn tail that you used to tie the mid­dle of the yarn wrap long. Use the yarn tail to attach the pom pom to the top of the hat.

Have a bright and hap­py week­end, everyone!