Moroccan Fedoras from The World Knits Collection

Available on my website here

and on Ravelry here

Number 8 from The World Knits Collection - Moroccan Fedoras

I designed and knit all of these hats. I had big ideas for this booklet but designing hats had -- and still has -- always been a challenge for me. I like to see the hat on someone as I design and I am usually my model. So I was going to have to knit and design as I went.

I was determined to make 4 different hat shapes: 

• A close fitting hat -- aka a Skull Cap

• A pillbox hat -- a la Jackie Kennedy

• A french beret-ish hat but with Fair Isle Motifs

• and lastly a Mushroom shaped hat -- just because

Back in the day, there was a book called Knitted Tams by Mary Rowe published by Interweave Press. You can still find it used on-line. As I remember, there was a section on designing tams that I used as reference. It looks like there is a newish Mary Rowe book for sale on Schoolhouse Press called Knitting Tams. 

As I worked, one hat morphed into the next hat. Each hat is like a small kaleidoscope when you get to the crown shaping. The Double Decrease at the crown decrease points is what makes the hats so distinctive. If you don't know how to do this, watch this video. It is very clear. If anyone else has another favorite video for that technique, please add it to the comments. I was looking for a video that showed it in Fair Isle so that the colors would be visible but I gave up looking. No - I don't have time to do one myself. 

Hats are such popular projects to make - I think because you only need to knit one of them as opposed to 2 socks or 2 mittens. They don't take much yarn. They are fun learning experiments and relatively quick to knit -- especially if you make the baby size. I've knit a lot of these colorful hats in the past. Unfortunately, I don't have any of them anymore except for this sweet little pillbox cap that I made for Julia way back when. The moths have gotten to it in one small section. You can see that I decorated the hat with more duplicate stitch to bring the pattern out even more and added French knots for fun. 

I added whip stitch to the top ridge shown in the photo below. Sometimes when I am knitting and designing at the same time, I'm not sure how I want the ribbing or edging to look. Frequently, I will just begin with the body of the project. I will do a provisional cast on with a scrap of yarn and after the whole project is done, I rip out the scrap of yarn and then work the edging down. Here is a good video on Provisional Cast Ons. When you work the edging down, you also have a chance to adjust how tight the hat edge is. I can see that I did a tight bind off - probably to keep the hat on little Julia's head. 

I can't wait to see what you all come up with. 
Scroll down to see the Mushroom Cap I am making for myself in progress.

Available on my website here

and on Ravelry here

If you want to keep your patterns in your Ravelry library, make sure to order through my Kristin Nicholas Ravelry store
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/kristin-nicholas-ravelry-store/patterns, 
not my personal website.

My Mushroom Cap. Time to switch to the DPN's. 

Side view of hat. I may do something different with the rib. Not sure yet.