Monday, May 10, 2010

Slightly Smaller K1B Baby Hat



Earlier this year, I designed a Knit-One-Below (K1B) baby hat. The finished size had a 14" circumference, which would fit a baby 3-6 months. The K1B fabric is stretchy, so the hat would be able to fit an older baby. I wanted to make the same hat smaller so it could be a gift for a younger baby.

The hat was knit with 100% cotton Peaches & Creme, Gum Drop (Color 205) on size 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles.



The only details altered are the number of stitches that I cast on, and the way I did crown decrease. I cast on 54 stitches instead of the 60 in the pattern. K1B cloth is so stretchy, that I could have reduced the CO stitches even further. This hat is closer to the 3 month of 3-6 month range.

New Round 1 for Decrease: *K1B, (K1, K1B) 7 times, K3tog*, repeat from * across (48 sts)

Old hat: 14" circ, 6.5" high. (circ is actually closer to 15 inches)
New Hat: 13" circumference

In the hat shown on the pattern page, the K1, K1B pattern eliminated pooling. Here the color changes are more frequent, and it softened the pooling by mixing it up a bit. I'm actually THRILLED with how the spirals came out. If I had not made this a K1B hat, then I would have seen more horizontal stripes since the colors repeated every other row.

References