Three hats and a pattern

I made these three beanies as Christmas presents to send back to the states. Started out, I was just going to make one for my mom, but as it went so quickly and I had lots of yarn bits just perfect for the job lying around the house, I thought I'd make one for my sister and my aunt as well. I used different bits of yarn here and there, but basically, all were 12 or 14 ply wool yarn, and I used some of Spotlight's Yarn Bee novelty fur yarn to trim them in, which I picked up a couple of months back on sale for something like 1.49 per 50 g skein.

The pattern was very simple. I made them on straight needles and just put a seam in the back. I suppose that is sort of the cheaters way out when it comes to hats, but I find that if I'm careful with my seams, they really come out looking pretty darn good.

The pattern went something like this:

Winter Hats on Straight Needles:

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Materials: 2 - 50g balls 12 (or 14) ply yarn

1 - matching novelty fur yarn

8mm straight needles

Cast on 70 stitches,

Knitting with one strand of 12 ply yarn and one strand of fur yarn:

Knit in 2x2 rib (1st row k2 p2 to end, ending with k2, 2nd row p2 k2 to end, ending with a p2, repeat these two rows for pattern) until work measures 9 cm.

Cut off novelty fur yarn, leaving a 6cm tail. Continue on in 2x2 rib, using only the 12 ply yarn until all of work measures 26 cm, ending with a purl row.

Begin shaping:

Row 1 : K2 tog, *P2, K2tog; rep from * to end. 52 stitches

Row 2 : P1, *K2,P1: rep from * to end

Row 3 : K1 *P2,K1: rep from * to end

Row 4 : As row 2

Row 5 : K1, *P2tog,K1: rep from * to end. 35 stitches

Row 6 : P1, *K1,P1: rep from * to end

Row 7 : K1, *P1,K1: rep from * to end

Row 8 : As row 6

Row 9 : K1, *K2tog: rep from * to end. 18 stitches

Row 10 : *P2tog: rep from * to end. 9 stitches

Cut yarn, leaving enough of a tail to pass thru the remaining stitches and also stitch up the seam of the hat.

Pass tail thru the remaining stitches, pull tightly and tie off, but DO NOT cut short. Sew in all ends. Then take the remainder of your very long tail, thread it into a yarn needle, and sew up the seam. Reminder: your fur area is going to turn up, so switch sides as your sewing the seam at the point of the fur, as to keep the ugly back of the seam out of sight.

Easy as! I don't often get to sit for 3 hours and just knit, but I reckon that would have been the sum total of my 15 minutes here and there it took me to knit these up!