Note: Major League baseballs are required to obtain the designer’s intention for this pattern. I used 2 minor league baseballs, which contained 3 different yarn colors of varying thicknesses.

I disassembled 2 minor league baseballs. (Thanks, KnittingDaddy !) I washed the yarns with Eucalan prior to knitting. Before washing, the 4-ply yarn measured as a worsted weight and the 3-ply yarn measured as a DK weight. After washing, the 4-ply yarn measured as Aran weight and the 3-ply measured as light worsted weight. All yarns had no elasticity, whatsoever, and felt slightly nicer than burlap twine. Minor league baseballs appear to have less yarn yardage than major league baseballs. One minor league ball did not contain enough yarn to complete outer layer of hat. After reading project comments about the yarn’s coarseness, I decided to add a lining.

Used Lion Brand Mandala for swatch, baseball yarn for hat’s outer layer, and KnitPicks Gloss fingering for hat’s lining. I originally bridged the outer brim and inner lining with KnitPick’s Simply Worsted yarn, but it did not fold over well and was removed. Hat height=9”, hat brim & body=6”, hat crown/decreases=3”.

Outer layer:

• CO 100 sts with Simply Wool and US 7 needles; k 5 rounds
• Switched to 4-ply baseball yarn and knit 1 round
• (sl2, p2) for 1 round
• (k2, p2) for 10 rounds (2”)
• (sl2, k2) for 1 round
• Switched to US 8 and gray 3-ply baseball yarn; k 4 r
• K 1 r with 3 ply white baseball yarn
• K 2 r with 3 ply gray baseball yarn
• Switched to US 9 needles and worked chart with gray and white 3ply yarns
• Switched to US 8 needles and k2 rounds with 3-ply gray
• K 1 round white 3-ply
• K with gray 3-ply until hat height was 6”
• Began crown decreases
• Swithched to 4-ply gray and US 5 needles whey 3-ply gray ran out. Finished crown
• Picked up bottom circular needle and tinked out Simply Wool yarn.
• Started lining with Gloss Fingering.

Lining:
Used a fingering weight, merino/silk blend (Knit Picks Gloss Fingering). When joining fingering yarn with live brim edge stitches, I worked a lifted increase every 5 sts. This brought the stitch count from 100 to 120. When the lining reached the brim height, I decreased 6 sts over 2 rounds (112 sts). Started crown decreases when lining height reached 6”; pm every 14 sts. I worked 2 rounds of stockinette after every decrease round until the stitch count reached 7 sts between markers. From here on, I worked 1 plain round after every decrease round until 8 sts total (2 sts between markers) remained. Care was taken while blocking to prevent wet lining from stretching larger than the outer layer made with baseball yarn. (It would take a nuclear incident to stretch the stitches made with the baseball yarn.) I laid the work flat (with lining pulled out of outer layer) to dry until the work dried from wet to damp. Then I folded lining into hat, inflated a balloon inside hat, and allowed hat to dry completely.

This is going to be one warm hat!

Jogless single row stripe (Start at 4:00)
Jogless Fair Isle In The Round