Home Spun Knitted Hats

These home spun knitted hats were created from dyed merino wool near a worsted weight and knitted on size 10.5 needles.

Finding knitting projects simple enough for kids and entertaining enough to motivate them can be a challenge. This simple hat fits the bill. Although I spun the wool for the hat, purchased yarn would work just as well.

Spinning wool into yarn and knitting are two of my favorite hobbies. I learned to spin when living in Colorado after visiting a history event which had a spinning demonstration. It just so happened a lady who lived a few miles away was willing to teach my daughter who was five years old at the time.

We spent three 30 minute sessions with her learning to spin on a hand-held spindle, and then bought ourselves a wheel. It is a very rewarding and creative hobby.

Just as knitters have a natural tendency to knit loosely or pull the stitches very tightly, spinners have a tendency to spin thick yarn, or thin yarn. The yarn I make tends to be close to a worsted weight yarn and I knit loosely.

The yarn for these hats was created by spinning balls of solid colors (lavender, aqua, raspberry, gold and pink - magenta, purple, lavender and aqua) and then spinning the balls together into plied yarn which contained two strands of different colors.

The hat pattern:Cast on 60 stitches and join into the round
k1, p1 for 1 inch
knit 6.5 inches then decrease as follows
k8, k2tog - 54 stitches
k7, k2tog - 48 stitches
k6, k2tog - 42 stitches
k5, k2tog - 36 stitches
k4, k2tog - 30 stitches
k3, k2tog - 24 stitches
k2, k2tog - 18 stitches
k1, k2tog - 12 stitches
k2tog - 6 stitches
string the yarn through remaining loops and tie off hat

Hat 1:
Topper Loops:

To create the loops on top of the hat five 4" snakes were created. By casting on four stitches and pushing the stitches to the opposite end of the double pointed needle and knitting, instead of knitting back and forth, a small circular tube was created. Each of the tubes were sewn to the top of the hat in a loose pretzel shape securing both ends to the inside of the hat by tying the lead and cast-off yarn pieces together.


Hat 2:
Flower Pattern:
Cast on 6 stitches
*cast off 4 stitches, knit 2
*knit 2, cast on 4 stitches
Repeat two starred rows 15 times
sew the flower into a circle

Flower center
Cast on 3 stitches
knit 3 two rows
knit 3 with tail two rows
cast off and sew into a semi-sphere

Next, the flower was sewn onto the hat and center of the flower was added on top of the flower.

To find more simple knitting projects for kids and beginners, please see our Arts and Crafts page.