February 2013 #1 - Celestial Swing

My favorite hat charity, Halos of Hope, is again collecting hats for their Camp Happy Times Campaign. This year's theme - "Stars", which leaves a wide open field of ideas. I was struggling a bit with the theme because I wasn't really feeling it so I decided to just knit a simple hat and then add some embellishment by way of a literal interpretation with the adding of a felted moon and star.

I made up the pattern as I went, but I wouldn't say it was that original. I used Red Heart Stripes in Breezy Stripe on a size 8 16" circular needle and a set of 8 dpns. Stitches used are knit, purl and k2tog. I cast on 72 stitches, did a simple k2p2 ribbing for 2" and then stockinette stitch for 5" from the edge before beginning the decrease rounds. Each decrease round is followed by two rounds of straight knitting. Decrease rounds begin with (k10, k2tog) around and continue until there are six stitches remaining on the needles. I then added six scrap pieces of yarn and braided them into two pieces approximately 3" long, to which I attached the moon and star felted shapes.

This hat could easily be adapted to have other felt shapes such as hearts, flowers, shamrocks, etc.