I have a few co-workers expecting babies and am making them hats. After talking to some parents of young children, I decided to knit toddler size hats so they’ll be able to get some good use out of the hats in the next year or two.

I’m using some fairly old handspun, which does not really have consistent thickness, but it’s superwash and the colors are really pretty. I’m considering it gender neutral - the purple may be girly, but the yellow/orange makes the hats look brown.

Hat One
I started out knitting the Scant pattern, which helped me figure out that my gauge was 4 sts/inch on US 6s. However, the Scant pattern, which starts at the crown of the head, has you increase every third row … which results in a pointy hat. So I ripped it out, cast on 72 sts with US 6s, knit about an inch of k2p2 ribbing, switched to stockinette, and started the decreases as per the pattern (decreasing in groups of 8 sts) at about 5.5 inches.

Hat Two
I thought the ribbing in the first hat was a bit too loose, so for the second one, I CO 72 sts with US 4s, knit about an inch of k2p2 ribbing, and then switched to US 6s. For the body of the hat, I knit k6p2 ribbing, which still looks a lot like stockinette, but will provide a bit more stretch for the hat to fit a smaller head better but still expand as the child grows. Started the decreases (ssk, k6, etc., to keep the p2 ribbing intact) at 5.5 inches. Started 10/25/2014 and finished 10/28/2014.

151 yards for both hats. Gifted on 11/12/14.