I was playing around on my Silver Reed LK150 a while back and came up with this simple beanie that begs to be customized. This hat has a folded brim and a cinched crown that would look great with an added pompom.
It’s just a rectangle, but it’s the perfect template to doodle around with and try out new things as you develop your machine knitting arsenal of techniques. I hope you enjoy it and put your own spin on it!
Materials
50-150g of Worsted Weight Yarn (Samples use Cascade 220 Superwash Wool at T7)
Silver Reed LK 150 6.5mm knitting machine
Sizing
Baby- 60 stitches, 30L-30R
Child/Teen- 80 stitches, 40L-40R
Adult- 90 stitches, 45L-45R
Adult L- 100 stitches, 50L-50R
Gauge
4 st per in at T7 in Cascade 220 Superwash
The Doodle Beanie concept will work with any machine gauge and suitable yarn. Knowing your stitches per inch from swatching yarn is immensely beneficial, so I encourage you to swatch beforehand if you have no clue what yarns knit best at what tensions on your machine.
Pattern Instructions
Set Tension to 7.
E-wrap CO 60 (80, 90, 100) stitches.
Brim:
Knit 20 (30, 40, 40) rows.
Hang hem by picking up the e-wrap and hanging it on the needle above it.
Knit 1 row at T9.
Revert back to T7.
Reset to RC000
Body:
This is the place to experiment with stitch patterns, stripes, etc
Knit 20 (30, 40, 40) rows.
Crown:
Transfer stitches to EON.
Tension down to T6. Knit 1 row.
T5. Knit 1 row.
T4. Knit 1 row.
T3. Knit 1 row.
Finishing:
Do not remove stitches from needles.
Leaving a tail long enough to seam the beanie, cut yarn.
Thread needle and sew through the live stitches from the opposite side of the tail before removing the beanie from the machine.
Cinch the top of the beanie together.
Pull tightly but be careful not to break your yarn.
Mattress stitch the sides of the beanie together. Weave in ends. Attach a pompom if you like.
Modification Tips and Ideas
For a rolled brim, halve the number of rows in the brim step and do not hang the stitches.
If you are not comfortable using your transfer tools or are in need of a very quick knit, tensioning down alone will work, but you will need to cinch the top together above the remaining live stitches like the pictures below to close the crown. The density of stitches at the crown is why we decrease to EON.
If you want a bit of a slouchy beanie, you can add 5 rows and skip tightening tension in the crown altogether. It will be easier to cinch the top if you decrease to EON.
Try knitting two strands of smaller yarns together or using variegated yarn to spice up the simplest version of this hat.
Abbreviations
| CO | Cast On |
| BO | Bind Off |
| WP | Working Position |
| COR | Carriage on Right |
| COL | Carriage on Left |
| EON | Every Other Needle |
| RC ### | Row Count ###, i.e. Row Count 023 |
| T# | Tension and size number (Tension 1, Tension 2…) |
What will you doodle?
Did you knit a Doodle Hat? Please consider sharing your projects on ravelry so I can see what you made. I love seeing project pictures!
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As always, thank you for joining me on my machine knitting journey! Let me know what you think below in the comments. I’m also happy to hear from you via my contact form or on Instagram.
ELY Knits 