Toboggan Beginner Hat Project Knitomatic

Toboggan

There are a lot of new knitters picking up sticks for the first time, so I thought a nice little pattern to get you beyond scarves might serve you well. If you’re already an experience knitter you might want to keep this project in mind for people you end up teaching down the line!

Toboggan is a basic hat knit flat and seamed up the back. It only uses the knit stitch, which I think makes it great for kids as well as adults.

Size

• Kids L / Adult XS (Adult S/M, Adult L/XL)
• Circumference (unstretched): 17½ (20½, 23¼)“

Yarn Options

You’ll only need about 100g of yarn for this project, so one ball of any of the following yarns will work:

• Berroco Vintage Chunky (machine washable)
• Cascade Eco Merino (1 ball will make at least two hats)
• Diamond Baby Alpaca Sport (incredibly soft with some fuzz)
• Malabrigo Mecha (super soft!)
• Illimani Amelie (soft, luxurious and beautiful – this is what I knit when I fee blue)
• Hayfield Spirit Chunky (machine washable & Coming Soon!)

Needles

Beginners generally do best with straight needles (circular needles tend to get confusing early on). Because you are going to be putting on a bunch of stitches a longer 13″ or 14″ needle is a good idea. (9″/10″ straight needles are my favourite to start people off with, especially for scarves, but for a hat you’re really going to have to jam the stitch on there and it gets uncomfortable).

If you knit tight go up a size to a 6.5mm/US10.5 and if you knit loose consider going down a size to a 5.5mm/US9 needle. (I prefer to knit my hats a little bit tighter on purpose to block out the wind, so I go down).

In general, beginners seem to learn fastest with wood needles: they’re light, easy to use, and they aren’t too slippery (slippery is NOT good for beginners).

• Clover Straight Knitting Needles
• Knitter’s Pride Straight Needles

Notions

• Darning or Tapestry needles: Clover 219, 339, 340 or 3121 are all great!

Either will do, they’re basically the same thing, except one is straight and the other has a bent tip.

Accessories

What’s a craft hobby without accessories?! But seriously, a good Pom-Pom *makes* a hat. You can either make your own pompom or buy a real or synthetic fur pompom. Personally, i swear by the Clover brand pom-pom makers (I’ve made A LOT of pom-poms with them). These days, I’m partial to a raccoon fur pom-pom – they’re light and fluffy and the way they bob around makes me happy.

• Clover 3126 Large Pom-Pom maker
• Raccoon fur Pom-Poms (with snap attachment)
• Synthetic Raccoon Fur Pom-Poms (with snap attachment)
• Synthetic Rabbit Fur Pom-Poms (with loop attachment)

Pattern

I came across Toboggan a few years ago, it was a freebie from Classic Elite Yarns, which unfortunately no longer exists. I’ve found a link for you through the Internet Archive, but be sure to download it and save it in your preferred cloud drive (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, etc) – don’t take your patterns for granted, sometimes the internet lingers and other times things disappear.

The pattern is written in two ways; knitted in the round and knitted flat. Be sure to use the version that suits your skillset. Working in the round will require 16″ circular needles and double-pointed needles, but you won’t need to seam it. Working flat uses one pair of straight needles, and it has to be seamed to finish it up.