Shine Hat

 

A few months ago I was introduced to Ashely at The Shine Project through another blog. I was instantly blown away - what an amazing woman who is doing amazing things!

Ashley began The Shine Project to help send a few high school students off to college by raising money using her blog and some seriously inspirational and motivational posting skills! Now The Shine Project is becoming an official charitable organization with a board of directors and even bigger dreams for the future!

Ashley is super inspiring, and I wanted to create something to share my excitement at what she's doing. Enter The Shine Hat.

This fun hat can be made as slouchy or as fitted as you want, and while the stitches and construction are simple enough, the overall effect is fun and different. I used Patons wool for the hat pictured above, but I'll be sharing a few more hats made with this pattern soon, and for each I used a different combination of worsted weight wools just to see how versatile this pattern is - I'm happy to report you can substitute in just about any worsted weight wool and as long as you get gauge, you should be good to go!

Materials Needed: 

• One skein Patons Classic Wool (210 yards/192 meters per 100 grams) for color A – I used grey heather
• One skein Patons Classic Wool (210 yards/192 meters per 100 grams) for color B – I used natural mix
• One set size US 8 / 5 mm 16” circular needles
• One set size US 10 / 6 mm 16” circular needles
• One stitch marker
• One darning needle 

Gauge:
5 sts x 8 rows = 1" in seed stitch on larger needles

Finished Measurements:
17" circumference, un-stretched.

Directions:
Using color A, cast on 80 stitches.
Work 2x2 ribbing for 4.25”.

Fold brim in half with cast on edge inside of the work. Knitting one stitch from the cast on edge together with one stitch from the needles, work one more round of ribbing. This will turn the brim under doubled for added warmth.

Switch to larger needles and color B, knit all stitches around. At last 2 stitches, k2tog – this will create an odd number of stitches.

Now simply (k1, p1) around until the hat measures 8.5”. Because you decreased one at the beginning of the hat body, this will create a seed stitch pattern.

Decrease Row 1: (K1, K2tog) around.
Decrease Row 2: (k1, p1) around.
Decrease Row 3: (k2tog) around.

Break yarn, leaving a long tail. Weave through all live stitches on needles, pulling off the needles and closing the top of the hat. Weave in all ends, and attach a pom to the top of the hat.

TIP: I use a commercially-purchased pom maker for all my hats, and tie them up using yarn from the main body color of the hat. This way, when I weave in the ends from the pom, they do not show up on the hat body!