November 2011 hat #2 - A Striped Square

Jared Flood designed this simple striped hat that offers endless possibilities for customization. I hadn't fully realized this until writing this post I actually looked over at Ravelry and saw almost 10,000 projects to view. Other than the obvious customization of striping color, knitters have also changed width of the stripes, number and/or quantity of stripes, width of the ribbing, and the actual size of the hat (think baby hats). There are even some very talented knitters that have added fair isle colorwork or knitted motifs into their work.

I on the other hand, this actually being my second Turn A Square hat, stayed true to the pattern. Or so I thought. According to the pattern & pictures, this should be fitted hat. Well, that’s only going to happen if the young man who chooses this hat has a head the size of a gorilla. For some reason I didn’t use the smaller needles for the ribbing. Perhaps I remembered my first attempt being on the snug side? I'm also not overly thrilled with the squared corners on this particular hat as I feel they are a bit on the loose side. I checked the gauge of my finished hat (and I rarely check gauge) to find that I was indeed a bit looser than the intended 5 stitches per inch target. I came in at 4.5 per inch. However, I have yet another hat I completed immediately after this one (which I'm giving away as a gift) and when I checked that gauge, I was spot on. Same yarn combo, so who the heck knows?

The pattern is available for free from the Brooklyn Tweed website. I used Kraemer Perfection in Granite for the main hat with the stripes in Classic Elite Liberty Wool color #7802. I used 16" size 5 and 7 circular needles and 1 set of size 7 dpn. Stitches used are knit, purl, and K2tog. If you need help with stripes in-the-round view one of these instructional videos, either Knitting Daily TV Episode 311 or Knit Purl Hunter.  Good Luck and happy stripes.