terriko

My kid decided he wanted to have a “meat hat” and after some consultation to figure out what he meant by that, it was determined that he wanted a green hat with some sort of meat pixel art on the hat, possibly inspired by Minecraft. He picked out the yarn in the spring, but it was already too warm for a hat so I didn’t get around to actually knitting it until fall. I got him to make some additional design guidance and handed him a pixel art editor for final designs, and this is what he drew:

He then clarified:

• The types of meat are steak, chicken and meatballs





• Each one could go on its own line but had to be repeated around the hat

Seems clear enough, although I’m still not sure what inspired the need for a meat hat. But he has outgrown his previous winter hat, so away we go! I can’t really imagine other people wanting to knit a meat hat so it feels a bit odd to document this as a pattern, but who knows maybe your kindergartener is also into meat?

Spoilers: here’s what the actual hat looked like after we made it!

My kid’s head is 21″ which is basically an adult small. Yes, he has a huge head (and I had the stitches to show for it, thanks. And not the knitting kind of stitches!).

• I used the free Barley hat pattern from Tin Can Knits as a base to figure out sizing because it was free and I wanted to try out the new sizing in their app (which is pretty neat). If you need a different size, you could maybe use that to help you figure it out. The matching mitts are the kid’s size from the simple collection, also available in the app or their website.





• Sorry, I haven’t made a written or accessible version of this because I honestly can’t imagine anyone but me knitting it. There is alt text describing what’s in the charts for curious passers by, but no written instructions or higher contrast charts available, and my kid’s dark green and dark brown colour choices aren’t the easiest to read. If you do want an accessible version and you promise to actually try knitting it, ping me at terri(at)toybox.ca and I’ll see what I can do.

Yarn: Worsted weight. I used Dream in Colour Smooshy for the main green colour, Amano Yarns Warmi for the brown meat colour (the heathering really rocks for this) and Knitpicks Swish Worsted for the black and white bits. The contrast here isn’t as good as it could be, but that’s what happens when your kid picks the colours based on what feels nice in the yarn store. I’m not sad: these were lovely to knit with.

Needles: US6 for brim / US 8 for body. If your colourwork tends to be tight you probably want to go up at least one needle size for the colourwork. (I did not do this, but then had to stretch the hat a bit during blocking as a result.) There are some long floats here: this might be a good piece for practicing the ladder back jacquard technique if you want an excuse.

Brim

Cast on 84 stitches with smaller needs (US6 for me) in main colour (or a contrast colour, you do you!)

Ribbing Row: (Knit 2, purl 2) repeat around

Work ribbing row for around 1.5 inches or however long you want your brim to be.

Switch to larger needles (US8 for me)

Stockinette Row: knit around

Work stockinette row for 1.5 inches if you wish to have a folded up brim and don’t want the pattern to get hidden. If you don’t like a folded brim, you can just work 2 rows instead, but you’ll have to start decreases earlier in the hat colourwork (or enjoy a slouchier hat!)

Colourwork

Increase row: m1, knit around

My pixel art program produces 16×16 sized images, but 84 doesn’t divide evenly into 16. However 17 is a multiple of 85, so I just added an increase in the first motif and repeated each steak motif 5 times. Technically my kid drew stuff with a lot of white space so if you’re really committed to 84 stitches for some reason you *could* trim his charts down to 12 stitches and make them fit. I just didn’t do this for the steak and chicken charts.

If you tend to have tight colourwork, you should go up another needle size here.

Follow steak chart for the motif, but I removed most of the green lines and kept only 2 between the steak and chicken.

Follow chicken chart for the motif, skipping some green lines as you prefer. I moved my stitch markers so that the chicken lined up with the gaps in the previous chart. I kept 1 green row before starting the meatball chart and removed all the others. I personally did the top of the chicken and black bits as duplicate stitch because I was tired of carrying long floats, but you do whatever works for you. (if you took out more green columns the floats might not be so bad.)

At this point, I decided I wanted more meatballs, so I tucked a k2tog in the start of the meatball chart to go back down to 84 stitches and adjusted to a 14 stitch motif repeated 6 times instead.

Note that I needed to start crown decreases while I was in the midst of the meatball motif on the top meatball, so I just stuck them in between the meatballs (see below for decrease instructions)

If you went up a needle size for the colourwork, you can decrease again here.

Crown decreases

Once the motifs have reached around 6 inches you’ll need to start decreases:

Decrease row: (k12, k2tog) repeat around (6 times)

(Or if you’re still in the middle of a motif, work motif for 12 stitches then the decrease. )

Work decrease row then stockinette row for first 4 decreases, then work decrease row only until you have 6 stitches. Cut yarn leaving a 6 inch tail and weave through the final stitches then pull tight and tie closed. Weave in ends. Block.

And that’s the meat hat! Kiddo did indeed wear it this week when we had actual snow and cold, though I expect the hat won’t get much use since he’s pretty anti-hat unless it’s actually cold. It’s seldom below freezing here for more than a week per year . But it was fun to work on his design so I’m not sad even if it only gets worn a few times. He says he wants a rainbow sweater next!

[Note: I wrote this up last year/summer of 2022, never quite finished it, and never published it as a result. I don’t know if I remember enough here to finish writing this up properly without knitting the socks again. I don’t want it languishing in my drafts and I’m not sure when I’ll feel inclined to write it up as a real pattern. So I’m just gonna publish it anyhow and I hope it helps someone else who wants to play with a fun technique!]

The folk at Knitted Wit had a fun summer bingo this year, and one of the squares was “I tried a new-to-me sock technique” so I decided to try knitting two at a time socks with the socks nested inside each other. One of the people in my old Saturday knitting group used to do this somewhat regularly and I was intrigued. I wasn’t up to knitting full sized socks just to try a technique, so I worked from the knitted mirror socks pattern and scaled it down to 24 stitch mini socks and took out all the colour changes.

Since I couldn’t find anyone else who’d done a tiny version of this, I’m writing up my notes in case you too want to try a new technique but don’t want to commit weeks of your life to doing it!

Tips before you start

Choosing yarns: make sure they look very different. Ideally you want high contrast and not a single speckle that matches. I used one speckle and one solid to help me differentiate and because I was using leftovers from previous projects. You might find it easier to just use two solids for the least stressful experience. It doesn’t matter in the finished project since the socks will be separated, but it’ll make the learning experience easier if you can tell your yarns apart even when you can only see a little stitch sticking out.

Choosing needles: you want sharp needles with long tapers at the tips because p2tog through the back loop is a pain on blunter tipped needles. I used chiaogoo size 1 because it’s what I have on hand that suits the fingering weight yarn I used. I think this pattern would have been frustrating if I’d tried to use my Knit Picks or Addi needles, even though the addis are my usual go-to for socks. I used a long circular and had a “top” and “bottom” needle. Two dpns (with a third working needle) would work just as well.

You’re going to be knitting top-down with the two socks nested, with the outer one inside out. This arrangement keeps the yarns to the correct side of the socks slightly more easily. If you’ve done double knitting before, it’ll feel pretty similar, you just have to be very careful about not crossing your yarns inside the tube.

Casting on

CO 24 stitches in the round. Do 4 rounds of k1, p1 ribbing. (You could do this two at a time but it’s only 4 rows and this way you get to start on something easier.)

Get a second set of needles, do it again. (Cast on 24 stitches, do 4 rounds of k1 p1 ribbing)

Decide which is going to be sock A, the outside sock that you’re going to purl in reverse stockinette, and which will be sock B, the inside sock that you will knit in regular stockinette. If one of your yarns is a bit thicker than the other, you’ll want it to be sock A because the gauge is going to be slightly bigger and you might as well have the yarn help. This wouldn’t be as important on full sized socks, but it’s noticeable on such tiny ones. (Guess how I know…)

Arrange the two socks on one set of needles so that the stitches alternate. Sock A, sock B, A, B, A, B and so on. I put 24 stitches on one needle (12 of A, 12 of B) to be the top of foot, and the remaining 24 on a second needle to be the bottom of foot.

Move yarn A to the front and B to the back. I hold both yarns in my left hand, so I found it easier to keep A in front with my thumb while working B.

Leg

Leg Row: Purl A, Knit B 24 times being careful not to cross your yarns.

Knit for about one thumb width of stockinette/reverse stockinette, checking periodically to make sure your yarns haven’t crossed. My thumb is around 2cm or 3/4 of an inch if you prefer to use a ruler, but since this sock doesn’t have to fit anyone I’m sure your thumb will be good enough too. Or you can just eyeball it.

Heel flap

Go to whichever needle you’ve designated as the bottom and start the heel flap. This will be knit flat over only the bottom needle’s stitches.

Row 1: slip A, slip B, then [Purl A, Knit B] 11 times, turn work.

Row 2: slip B, slip A, then [Purl B, knit A] 11 times, turn work.

Repeat these rows 6 times, so you should have 6 slipped stitches up the side.

Turn heel

You’re going to be doing decreases now, which means you’ll have to rearrange the stitches so two A and two B yarns are next to each other.

Row 1: [purl A, knit B] 7 times, rearrange stitches for decreases, dec A (p2tog), dec B (ssk) turn.

Row 2: [purl B, knit A] 3 times, rearrange stitches dec B dec A turn.

Row 3: [purl A, knit B] …

Continue like this until dec is at end of each row 8? stitches per sock

Pick up 6 stitches along edge of flap, continue as before across sock, pick up 6 on other edge.

PK dec,

You likely will have a little hole at the heel, particularly on the outside socks that are stretched out a bit more. Rather than fussing over it, just plan to sew it closed at the end.

Foot

Foot Row (same as leg): Purl A, Knit B 24 times being careful not to cross your yarns.

Knit in stockinette/reverse stockinette until the foot looks long enough to you. I once again used my thumb to measure and made it about the same length as the leg section.

Toe

Now here’s the part with the awkward p2togtbl so that you can match the k2tog. If you find it hard, sharper needles will tend to help. Also, since no one’s going to wear these and likely no one will care if the decreases don’t match, you could also just do a p2tog and call it a day if you want. You can graft the last few stitches if you want but these are so tiny that running the end through the last few stitches and pulling tight works fine.