This winter has been all about hats.

An ear-flap hat as my first commission ever. Another bear earflap hat and mittens when the first one turned out to be too small for the toddler. (I was gutted!) A hat for my Secret Santa to keep her cozy as she walks her English bulldog. A hat for an old friend. Dozens of hats with massive pompoms falling off my loom like snowflakes from the clouds.

There’s no sweeter project when you’re camped in front of the TV watching White Christmas for the millionth-and-a-half time. And since I kept seeing those massive pom-poms all over town in the last couple of months, I figured this was the year for cranial snuggles.

And you know what? It’s nice to do a few projects that aren’t a labour to create, and yet still manage to be crowd-pleasers.

I’m sure a lot of you think this is cheating, but I love the knifty knitter loom. Here’s the way to create perfect hats every time.

On a 36 peg round loom:

-Six rows of alternating *knit 2 stitches, purl two stitches*

-19-25 rows of e-wrapped knit stitches (depending on how long you want your hat and if you want it to be slouchy.)

-Begin decreasing by taking the loop of every fourth peg and putting it on the peg to the right. Knit off all these moved stitches. Then e-wrap all the remaining pegs (this would be three pegs in a row, then a space).

-Continue decreasing by taking the middle stitch of every remaining block of three stitches and moving it to the right. Knit off these stitches. E-wrap all the remaining pegs (this would be every other peg on the loom).

-I’m probably doing a poor job of explaining this. Here’s a great video on decreasing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui8hc5-uT4k

-Take your working yarn and wrap it around the whole loom. Cut it, leaving a long tail. Then use the working yarn and pull it through each stitch. Using you knitting tool take all the stitches off the pegs and pull the yarn to close the top of the hat.

-Tie it off on the inside of the hat.

So, what have you been working on this week?

xo

Jacquie