Have you seen all the awesome DMC, Top This Hat kits? There are so many to choose from! I have LOTS of them listed on Etsy. The ball band includes patterns for two hat sizes and they have additional sizes on their website. Including a crochet hat pattern! In this blog post get my free version of the little baby snuggle blanket. You know, the one that your favorite new baby needs to carry around? You hardly even need a pattern for this. Basically, start in the center with double pointed needles and continue increasing every other row until you run out of yarn....... Okay, a little more to it than that, but you get the idea. I really like the seed stitch on the edge for the baby to have that textured feel they love. You could also sew some satin around the outside for another option of texture. Possibilities are endless I'm sure.
Baby Binkie
DMC Top This Kit
Materials 1 Top This Hat Kit Size 9 DPN & 24” Circular
Gauge for this project is not really important, don’t worry! If you know you usually knit tight work on a larger needle, if you usually knit loose, use a smaller needle.
With DPN’s, starting in the center of blanket, cast on 8 stitches. I didn’t use a fancy cast on because you can just sew up/make a bit tighter with your tail if needed. Besides, your animal tie on will cover center anyway, so no worries. I also only used 3 needles to cast on and then separate to 4 and knit with the 5th after row 1.
Row 1: Knit front and back of each stitch.
Row 2: *K1, YO, K3, YO, PM, repeat from * for each needle. (8 stitches increased, you should have 24 stitches.
Tip: I recommend putting markers on when you switch from DPN's to circulars. Markers are not really necessary when on DPN's...just remember you are increasing at the beginning and the end of each needle. Besides, your markers would fall off. You can use the tail to mark the beginning of the round or choose your favorite method.
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: *K1, YO, Knit to next marker, YO, Slip Marker, repeat for each needle. (8 stitches increased)
Row 5: Knit
Continue with Row 4 and 5 until you have enough yarn to work 4+ rows of seed stitch and bind off.....switching to the circular needles when you have too many stitches to fit on DPN’s.
Finish with the following border, or the border of your choice.
I started border on sample photo when I had 34 stitches on each of the four sides....or 136 stitches.
Border: Work Seed Stitch for 4+ rows. Babies like texture and seed stitch lays flat so it’s a two for one! Tip for border: I continued with the knit stitch only on the four corner stitches. Meaning I did not do the seed stitch in those 4 stitches, you will have rows with 3 knit stitches in a row. If this doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry about it, just work the seed stitch.
Bind off loosely in pattern.
You could also use another textured yarn for the edging if you would like to make it a bit bigger. And as an extra bonus you don’t have to figure out how much you need to finish the border, you could use all of what comes in kit and then start with other yarn for the border. Something else to keep in mind is if you make a hat with one of these kits and have left over yarn, save it to make a blanket bigger if you want to use the same kit.
Please forgive me for any errors...I am not a pattern writer. Just wanted to share this freebie. Hope it works for you.
XO! Charlene Hatfield