Santa Hat No1.

Last year I knitted hats for Christmas Day, using the 2022 Shetland Wool Week hat pattern in cotton that I had in my stash. They were a success, and most hats were packed away as part of our Christmas paraphernalia. Three hats, however were kept by those who wore them and I need to replace them. Yes, I’ve left it a bit late, but I prioritised this year’s Shetland Wool Week Hats, as detailed in my last 3 posts. If our current Adelaide weather keeps up, those three might serve on Christmas Day, but it would be a rare year when anyone would wear a wool hat in Adelaide on Christmas Day. 

I had seen a photo of a hat cleverly designed with Santa heads in a diamond shape but couldn’t find a pattern I did find a chart for the heads on Pinterest, so set about working out how to knit the hat. I used measurements from the Buggiflooer Beanie, knitted a tension swatch in 10 ply cotton from Bendigo Mills,

did some scientific calculations on the inside of the wool label and started knitting.

After the band I shifted down a needle size as the knitting looked a bit loose. 

The Santas repeat is 11 stitches with one stitch between each, so easy to calculate. I didn’t have white in the 10 ply cotton, so used an acrylic I had acquired somewhere along the line. It adds a bit of dimension, and not a lot of warmth. For the tiny strip of face I used a 10 ply cotton in a gold colour. 

This is a very easy knit. Once I had the concept clear in my head I could knit without referring to the chart, except for putting in the nose and eyes. Even there, once you've got the logic in your head, it's easy to repeat. The thicker yarn, and therefore needles larger than the Buggiflooer ones, mean fewer stitches and quicker progress. I finished it in a day and a half.

I needed to figure out how to do the decreases for the crown, but the diamond shape sets the logic and I did it as I went along. I managed to do it without changing needles or too much awkwardness. 

There were very few ends to thread in, and the final decision, to pompom or not pompom, was easy. By this point I had decided I would knit all three of the hats I needed for Christmas in this pattern and colour set, but would distinguish them by different coloured pompoms, white, red and goldy. I often make pompoms by wrapping wool around a credit card but got my pompom maker out for this one.

One down, two to go.