Knitting Rules! (20 page)

A hat can be the simplest of knitting affairs and I think an international campaign to install a hat instead of a scarf as the first project for a knitter should be undertaken immediately.

Why? you ask (I can hear you from here). Why? For starters, a hat is much less of a major to-do than a scarf. Sure, scarves are practical, and no, I don't mean for you to give up on knitting them, but a scarf takes stamina. Just think about how it goes. You learn to cast on, you learn to knit (or purl) and get practice, but then it starts. A scarf goes on for entirely too long once you've mastered the basics. You get good at back-and-forth knitting and then it's just 47 miles of straight knitting until you get to add a third skill: casting off. Unless you're a knitter who doesn't mind boredom, you're really going to need to add “persistence” as a fourth skill.

A hat is a perfect place to experiment. If you choose a simple pattern, there is absolutely no reason not to try making some serious design changes. Ask yourself “What would happen if I …” and then try it. No one has ever suffered a lightning strike as punishment for knitting a bad hat. If it's hideous when you're done, be delighted you learned your lesson on a hat instead of on a sweater and bury the thing in the backyard.

A while ago, I discovered a way to get out of finishing a scarf and I wrote it down so anyone else who has started a scarf and has awakened to the reality that she can't take the heat of another 40 garter stitches can move on. I suppose you could just haul off and finish the thing, but I have to tell you that I think you'll enjoy it more when you bend a scarf to your will.

Ingredients

You'll need some yarn — the type is up to you, as this hat works with just about everything. You'll also need needles of an appropriate size to knit your yarn into a fabric you like. (It's good for it to be not too floppy; floppy hats don't flatter many people. Naturally, if you're the exception to this rule and pretty much look good only in floppy hats, you can blow off that suggestion.)

How to Do It

Knit a swatch
. (You knew I was going to say that, didn't you?) Begin by casting on about as many stitches as it takes to cover your hand, from the base of the palm to the tip of your longest finger plus 2 inches. This is a fairly big swatch, but if you're lucky, it'll be your hat.

Knit back and forth for a while
. Garter stitch is good (plain knitting every row), until you have 2 to 3 inches.

Now measure the width of the swatch
. If you're lucky, it'll still measure about the length of your hand plus 2 inches and you can proceed directly to step 6. If it measures much bigger, you're still okay, because you can just fold up the extra and your hat will have a brim.

If the width of the swatch is smaller than the hand height plus 2 inches, you'll have to make an adjustment
. First, count the number of stitches in 1 inch and write down this number. For the purpose of making this simple, let's imagine you find that there are 5 stitches in each inch. Now go back to the hand-height-plus-2 measurement. Let's say your hand is 8 inches, so 8 + 2 = 10. Now multiply (don't panic — this is the only math in this hat) the number of stitches to the inch by the hand-measurement number.
For my hat, this is:
5 (stitches to the inch) × 10 (the length of my hand plus 2 inches) = 50 (the magic number
)

From here it's a breeze
. Cast on the magic number of stitches and start knitting.

Knit until the fabric is long enough to go around your head. If it's not for your head
, measure the circumference of the recipient's head. If you're trying to be discreet (and there really is no discreet way to measure someone's head), check out How Big is Your Head? (at right) to make an educated guess.

Bind off
.