I Totally Could've Knitted (T)Hat!

I have a bad habit of staring at people's hats while waiting for trains and such. When standing idly among crowds I find my brain going to sleep mode, automatically calculating stitches on anyone's head wear who happen to stand close to me. "6st cable twist to the left, purl 4, 2st twist to the right.. guessing 5mm needle, nice yarn..". I thought I was getting pretty good at guessing at least which hats were hand made. Normally you can tell from the yarn used. ("Oh, there goes another Novita Crystal!")

Last week I saw one of our HR girls at the station. She was wearing a really interesting beanie with thick cables and little bobbles and since I know roughly who she is, ventured to ask permission to take a closer look (which I don't do to complete strangers at stations, though many a time have been tempted). I complimented her hat while examining it quickly and asked if it was hand made. She let out a little incredulous laugh and refused. Oh yee of little faith! Think not cute beanies can not be hand made!
 
From that day on I saw the same beanie everywhere. At the Pasila station. On the A-train. On the Z-train. It was as if cosmic forces were egging me on, saying "come on, have another look, you TOTALLY could've knitted that". So I did.


Hat Number 1 (white)

The first version I did was made out of some anonymous scrap yarn. I begun by casting on 70st on size 4mm double pointed needles and switchin to 5mm 40cm circular needle after few rows of rib. There's 5 pattern repeats and I repeated the rows on the chart 1,5 times (37 rows of pattern) and started decreasing.

Decrease rows:
1st row: Slip the first stitch of each decrease rows (will be used as the last stitch of the row).
*SKP1, P2, SKP1, K2, K2TOG, P2, K2TOG* Repeat *-* 5 times. (Use the first st of the row as the last to be knitted together with previous stitch.)
2nd row: *Sl 1 st to cn and hold in back, K1; K1 from cn, P2, K4, P2*. Repeat *-* 5 times.
3rd row: *SKP1, P1, SKP1, K2TOG, P1, K2TOG*
4th row:  *Sl 1 st to cn and hold in back, K1; K1 from cn, P1, K2, P1*
5th row:  *SKP1,  K2TOG, K2TOG*
6th row: *Slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over the knit 2 together* Cut the yarn and run the end through the remaining stitches. Block if necessary.

As I wasn't happy with hat number one, I had another go and made hat number two, which is a lot more like the original source of inspiration.

Click to enlarge

Hat number 2 (fuchsia)

Yarn: Novita Tempo (100g = 115m, 65% wool, 35% acrylic)

roughly 1 skein

Cast on 72 st on size 5mm dpns. Knit rib 1x1 for 6 rows. Switch to size 6mm circular needle and add 48 stitches evenly around the 7th row  =120st. Begin working according to the chart. The chart is divided to two parts, the first 4 st repeat a 4 row honey combe pattern and the remaining 16 include the big cable and bobbles. Together these 2 patterns form the 20 st pattern that is repeated 6 times around. Begin decreases after knitting 34 rows of pattern (making sure to finish with row 2 on the honey combe).

Decrease rows:
1st row: Slip the first stitch of each decrease rows (will be used as the last stitch of the row).
*K2, SKP, P3, SKP, K4, K2TOG, P3, K2TOG* Repeat *-* 6 times.
2nd row:*K2, SKP, P 2, SKP, K2, K2TOG, P2, K2TOG.*
3rd row: *K2, SKP, P1, SKP, K2TOG, P1, K2TOG*
4th row: *K2, SKP, K2TOG, K2TOG*
5th row: *K2, Slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over the knit 2 together*,
6th row; *K2* for the remaining stitches, cut yarn, run the end through the remaining stitches and darn in the end.

Click to enlarge