This hat was inspired by my Opera loving niece. She liked a funkier Viking helmet in the Met’s online shop. I then found an amazing one on MySpace and tried to contact the owner. She never answered. :(

I found Ali’s free Viking hat pattern. I used the same idea for the band--casting on 96 stitches in some leftover grey yarn (repeats of 8 stitches). I did three rows of seed stitch then 3 rows of stockinette on either side of the row of bobbles. I made one large bobble every 8th stitch. Three more rows of stockinette and then seed stitch for the band’s edge.

Then I switched colors to the dusty blue. I knit plain stockinette for about 3-4” then began my decreases. I decreased in sections of 8 stitches, so I knit 2 together every three rounds until I had 5 stitches per section. Then I decreased every other round to the end.

I made a band of grey over the blue by casting on 4 stitches for the middle of the top of the hat. I knit a round, then K1M1 so I had 8 stitches. I knit a round and did M1 in the 3 middle stitches so there would be 7 in each bar. I put 7 stitches each on 4 dpns to begin the cross shape, like a + but with longer legs.

I knit a band of 7 stitches for each of 4 sides of my helmet, adding mini-bobbles every 8 rows or so. (If you count the rows in the blue section you can divide more evenly than I did just guessing). Mini-bobble: Knit to 4th stitch. M1, turn work and purl back 2 stitches, turn and knit the same 2 stitches, purl back the same 2, knit 2 psso, finish row.

I will post the wings after I figure them out. I am hoping to make them a bit feather-like with angles stitches. If that does not work, I will do the ribbed wing Ali designed, but I will decrease 4 at the beginning of the row and do a second set of knit and purl between the decreases.

Wings--I finished this hat quickly until I got to the wings. Stuck on that for about a year and never came up with a better plan. Used the afghan type stitch that makes chevron or “V” shapes. I sent the hat away, so am guessing I cast on 7 stitches for each feather. Then I knit 3, made 1-knit 1-made one and knit 3 for each feather. At the junction between feathers I knit 3
together. (There may be a purl column there to help define the feathers from each other.) I also knit 2 together at each outside edge. I think I just purled back to the beginning on the wrong side, so all the fiddly stuff is worked from the front..

After I had several inches of the feathers done, I separated them and only knit one repeat. I had to decrease to get the point--probably did the outside edge every row until I knit 3 together to make the point.

I used a brown yarn that forms a stripe, so I tried to pick the same section for each side so that they would match, more or less.

The problem I couldn’t quite overcome was that the points wanted to curl up. The best solution I could come up with was to run the ends of the yarn up and down the centers of the feathers to make a sort of stiffer middle rib on each one. I think I also ran a line of two strands of yarn around the pointed edges. I sewed them onto the hat so that they could stick out a bit, with the bottom edge firmly attached, then a few tacks across the middle and then left the feather tips free. They are scrunched together a bit at the base and sewn just above the grey band. I also tacked them along the long edge of the feathers facing the front of the helmet. They turned out to be just whimsical enough that the hat didn’t look quite so realistic and was much more fun. It didn’t take itself too seriously and Lindsay said she wore it to power through writing her Master’s Thesis.