“Beehive” garter stitch hat

Hi all! Just a quick update! School’s back in session, and I’m gearing up for a craft show on October 1st- needless to say, I’ve been working hard the last few weeks!

I wanted to give my poor circular needles a break, and explore the wonders of straight needle knitting again like I did so long ago before I discovered circular knitting.I’ve knitted a straight needle hat before, but never one of my own design. I wanted to include the texture of garter stitch in the hat… Plus not purl any. So this is what I came up with!

It still needs to be blocked. I usually just mist my knits with water from a tiny spray bottle I picked up at the dollar store and stretch them around a plate, so the brim stays relatively unstretched and the middle and top flatten out beret-style.

If you wanted to give this hat a try (it’s not an exact pattern by any stretch!) cast on 64 stitches on size 8 needles. Knit back and forth and back and forth until your work measures about 8 inches. Then, for decreases (again, this isn’t exact or neat decreasing) you’ll:

K2tog, ssk, k6

Knit a row

K2tog, ssk, k5

Knit a row

Etc all the way down to k2tog, ssk, k1

Then, bind off, and leave a long tail (about 16 inches) and whip stitch the sides together. Flip the hat inside out, and done!

I found as I was decreasing some weirdness started to happen at the end of the decrease row- like a few stitches would be left over after I decreased, but not enough to do a full cycle again. I just left it alone and kept working, and it worked out in the end!

OK, that’s all for now! Happy crafting friends!