The Mad Hatter!

I love knitting hats and over the past couple of years I have knitted a lot (and I mean a lot). The pattern was given to me by a lady who lives in Elmira New York who organizes a charity that sells hats on college campuses. Here are pictures of "some" of my creations knitted from my yarn stash including many Lion Brand http://cache.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/yarnInfo.cgi?yarnPageIndex=1 Red Heart yarns http://www.coatsandclark.com/ and Caron oddments http://www.caron.com/. Most of these hats have been donated to the campus charity and many others given to friends all over the world, including England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand! I did keep three for myself! You can even see a picture of me wearing one (that I didn't keep)! Can you spot me?

Here's the knitting pattern I used for the straightforward pom pom hats:
size 5,6,7 or 8, sixteen inch circular needle or 4 double points of correct size, cast on 100 stitches
For 7.5 inches Knit 2, Purl 2
Decrease using this formula
Row 1 K2, P2 tog around
Row 2-6 K2, P1 around
Row 7 K2 tog, P1 around
Row 8-12 K1, P1 around
Row 13 K2 tog, P2 tog around
Row 14-15 K1, P1 around
Row 16; K2 tog around
Fasten off leaving an 8 inch length of yarn. Thread this into needle and draw through remaining stitches. Make pompom if desired and fasten to top of cap!

If you want more information on how to knit caps for kids contact RSteeves@frontiernet.net