Simple = Perfect

There are several projects on the needles right now, stashed in assorted project bags around my house. Nothing terribly difficult—a sock that is ready for a heel, a beautiful cowl that needs 96 Kitchener stitches to finish it, a swatch for a T-shirt that is telling me I need to try different needles. Nothing hard but all require thought and attention and focus.

And while I nearly always want to knit (I don't do well when my hands are still), I don't always want to think very much while I'm knitting. That's where these sweet hats come in. I keep one going at all times. As soon as I finish one, I cast on a new one and stash it until I need a mindless project. Once it's on the needles I can just knit and knit and knit. It's just right for TV watching, for chatting at my knitting group, and for travel knitting.

That's when this little rolled brim baby hat fits the bill. I've made other patterns, but this is still my favorite. And it's the easiest. 

Just a basic hat... 

With DK yarn and size 5 or 6 needles (16-inch circular and DPNs),
cast on 72. Join and place marker. Knit to about 5 inches. To decrease, K2tog, K6; then K2tog, K5; K2tog, K4, etc. When 5 stitches remain, work 6 rows I-cord.Then K2tog (x2). Run yarn tail thru 3 remaining stitches. Weave in ends.

There is no end of new babies to wear these hats. I've made them for family and grandbabies of my friends and babies at church. But I don't always know the babies who get these hats. They have gone all over the country to friends and neighbors and co-workers of my daughters and sons-in-law. I stopped counting baby hats when I passed 50. 

The newest baby to get one of these hats.

I hear newer knitters say, "I'm not very good yet. I only know how to knit a dishcloth and a hat." Knitting something "hard" does not make the knitted item (or the knitter) any more worthy. Sometimes the simple is the most perfect item. There isn't anything much more special than getting a photo of a new baby wearing one of my hand knits. 

As I was finishing the white hat this weekend, a box arrived in the mail. A gift for Grandparents Day! A storybook about knitting hats. My little girls know me well.  ❤️  One of my other most favorite things in the world is reading to my little girls. I can't wait to read this one to them.