Knitted Hat for a New-born Baby

Do you know someone who is expecting a baby? This is a quick and easy knit to produce a cute home-made gift for the new arrival.

I'm a fairly inexperienced knitter, and I don't have much time for knitting - somehow when I sit down in the evenings I always have a cat on my lap, and cats and knitting do not mix! But I managed to get this project done with time to spare. I hope my niece (and her baby) will like it.

There are lots of instructables showing you how to knit - you only need to do knit, purl, and knit 2 together to make this hat.

What you need:

You only need a small amount of yarn - I used some leftover from another knitting project, and the hat used only part of a 50 g ball of baby double knitting yarn.

No 8 (4 mm) and no 10 (3.25 mm) knitting needles

Needle to sew up seam

Cast on 73 stitches using no 10 needles and work 3 ins (8 cm) in K1, P1 rib, increasing one stitch at the end of the last row. (74 stitches)

Change to no 8 needles and knit 20 rows of stocking stitch (one row knit, one row purl).
Decrease one stitch at beginning of next row (73 stitches) and continue in stocking stitch until it measures 6 in (15 cm) ending with a purl row.

Row 1: K1, *K2together, K6; repeat from * to end (64 stitches)

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: K1, *K2together, K5: repeat from * to end (55 stitches)

Row 4: Purl

Row 5: K1, *K2together, K4: repeat from * to end (46 stitches)
Row 6: Purl

Row 7: K1, *K2together, K3: repeat from * to end (37 stitches)
Row 8: Purl

Row 9: K1, *K2together, K2: repeat from * to end (28 stitches)
Row 10: Purl

Row 11: K1, *K2together, K1: repeat from * to end (19 stitches)
Row 12: Purl

Row 13: K1, *K2together, repeat from * to end (10 stitches)

Break off yarn and thread end through remaining 10 stitches, draw up firmly and fasten off.

Join seam, reversing sewing on ribbing for brim of hat. Sew in loose ends of thread.

Here's the finished hat. This is my niece, whose baby is due in November. Let's hope the hat fits when the baby arrives!