Variations on a Theme

My Buddy David expressed interest in wanting a pointed hat, I just found another wonderful sweater en'thrift in orange lambswool that I had just frogged and he was interested in Orange for his pointy hat.

I used my basic Beanie pattern, added enough stitches to go around his head, changed the ribbing to a knit-6 purl-2, a ribbing style I have come to enjoy the look of much more than just a k-2, p-2 (I really hate all those Y-O's if you know what I mean). Then, instead of decreasing for the beanie dome effect, I decreased 2 stitches evenly spaced every 4 rows of knitting (on two circular needles) to get the long pointed effect.

Here is the resulting ribbing with the k-6, p-2. I have heard many people on the knit list ask how to get rid of the gap where the cast on stitches are joined to form the circular work. I knit about 4 rows of straight stitches back and forth, not in circular leaving the cast on tail for use later, then I join these few rows of straight (excuse the term) knitting into the circular and knit away. When I have finished the project, I use the cast-on tail to sew the first few rows closed, and the resulting edge is only detectable when I look for where I have worked the end of the yarn into the body of the item. Works for me, and it is a lot easier than dealing with sewing an entire seam up the item.

Here are the finished pointy hats. The Orange one is for David, the other is mine. I knit mine in Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool (the only decent product I think they make, remember, I am a Dyed in the Wool Yarn Snob here,) after I finished knitting it in the white wool, I dip-dyed the bottom edge in Kool-Aid "Tropical Punch", flipped it over and dip-dyed the pointy end in "Grape" Kool-Aid leaving a center section un-dyed natural.