How To Knit An Easy Hat With Straight Needles

I knit because I find it relaxing. For that reason, I tend to stay away from the more complicated patterns that might require too much concentration and focus. I like simple items that knit up quickly and that I can easily give away as soon as they are completed. This is why I learned to knit an easy hat. This is my favorite easy knitted hat pattern because it's simple, versatile (I use various types of yarns and stitches from hat to hat), and I can make one in about two hours. This is also a wonderful project for beginning knitters, those new to hat knitting patterns, or if you're trying to teach someone to knit because it uses simple stitches and requires some basic skills like decreasing and sewing seams and it can be completed in a short enough time that a new knitter doesn't get bored or discouraged. Hat knitting is also an excellent way to get rid of all of those yarn scraps left over from other projects. I always have a bucket of yarn odds and ends laying around so I make tons of these hats throughout the year and give them away as "just because" gifts.

Materials: 1 ball of yarn (worsted weight or larger), size 9 straight needles, crochet hook or tapestry needle.

Cast on 60 stitches.

Work in k1p1 rib for 4 rows (I sometimes do k2p2 rib instead)

Switch to stockinette stitch (or any stitch you like) and work back and forth until hat measures 5 inches long.

Begin decrease rows as follows:

Row 1) k8, k2tog across

Row 2) purl

Row 3) k7, k2tog across

Row 4) purl

Row 5) k6, k2tog across

Row 6) purl

Row 7) k5, k2tog across

Row 8) purl

Row 9) k4, k2tog across

Row 10) purl

Row 11) k3, k2tog across

Row 12) purl

Row 13) k2, k2tog across

Row 14) purl

Row 15) k1 k2tog across

There should be 12 stitches left on your needle. Do not bind off, but close the top instead, then sew up the back seam. Attach a pom if you like.

Additional sizes:

I normally adjust the size of this had simply by changing needle size or yarn weight--smaller needles and yarn for children or infant hats, bigger for people with large heads--and it works very well. However, should you need to adjust your hat by number of stitches you can do so in increments of six. Just remember that for every six stitches you add, you'll have to add one decrease row and for every six you subtract, you'll have to subtract a decrease row. So if you cast on 66 stitches, your first decrease row would be k9k2tog across instead of k8 etc.

I also sometimes add some height to the pattern so that they break over and hang a little down the back like the one in the photo below. This is done by inserting an additional k row and an additional p row after decrease rows 5, 9, and 13.