Beanie time - Hurricane Hat

After the success of my first beanie, I was on a mission. I set out to make beanies for my closest friends. And the best thing about it: They would have to love them, and wear them, and keep them forever, because they were my friends. Muhahahaha! It's a fool proof plan for world domination.


So the next beanie project was started with my good friend Spannsie in mind. Spannsie is a bit of a whirlwind, always up for an adventure, be that climbing a mountain or chasing after zombies together. And so she goes through life, whirling and whirling and whirling around, going and going, and never stopping. So what better pattern than the awesome Hurricane Hat designed by Andrea Goutier?

Spannsie is one of those fabled red headed people, so I bought my new favourite yarn Cleckheaton Country Naturals in a nice, mossy green for her. This yarn, too, has little flecks of awesome throughout it, once again providing some beautiful texture throughout.

The Hurricane Hat - Another success

Some modifications

The original Hurricane Hat pattern is great, but I did make some modifications for my own beanie, which I thought I should share with fellow knitting novices. Check out the pattern first, so that you know what I'm talking about, and then have a look at some of my special beginner tips below:

'Making One' or not...

As I am still a beginner knitter, there are some knitting skills I am already quite confident with, while there are others which I avoid like the plague. Making a new stitch (making one or M1) is one of these plague like skills. I've looked at the theory, I watched the videos, I even poked around between two stitches once, but I still haven't tried it.

The original pattern asks you to to cast on 81 stitches and then knit two stitches together when you join the round the first time, to avoid the funny little wobbly bit you get when you just join away without thinking about it first. This would leave you with 80 to head into the brim. However, once the actual pattern starts, you need 81 again so that the purl stitches can travel forward in spirals. To get back to 81, you'd have to make one. No thanks.

Instead, I chose to revolutionise the whole thing and I cast on 82 stitches. Problem solved.

The ribbing in the brim

'Aha!' the maths savvy reader might say, smugly pointing out that we need an even number of stitches to do the brim ribbing the pattern calls for. Fear not, I've thought of that, too. I don't know why, but I'm just not a fan of the traditional K2, P2 brim. Mind you, I've only done it once, but I just didn't think it looked all that nice. Considering how much time and effort we put into the patterns and decreases of our beanies, why not give the same courtesy to the brim?

I would recommend my favourite brim method: P1, K1tbl (knit 1 through the back loop). Yes, you will be struggling a little bit more initially, but seeing how most brims are only seven or so rounds long, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle. And just think about how epic it's all going to look in the end!

Some other words of advice

When I first set out to make this beanie, I struggled a bit with the concept of not counting rows. How was I to make a beanie without meticulous row counting?! But then I fell in love with it. It felt so much more natural, almost liberating, like I actually had some small element of decision making in the process. I know, I'm starting to sound weird here, but it's true. I'd love to hear your experience with using patterns that involve a lot of counting versus patterns that let you go somewhat wild.

In any case, the great thing about this pattern is that you really don't have to count much of anything when you're working on the hurricane stitch pattern itself. Just start your K9, P1 and when you come around for the next time, you will be able to see what you need to do next. Your next purl stitch will always be right before your last purl stitch from the row below. You don't want to be purling into your purl stitches, as this would just give you some sort of wide ribbing effect. Have a look at the picture below and you will see exactly what I mean.

And with those words of advice in mind, head on over and start making Hurricane Hat yourself. I'm sure you'll love it, whether it'll be yours to keep or for someone else to cherish. Enjoy.