Red Striped Hat with Flower Accent

The other day while on facebook, a picture of a friend from college popped up on my newsfeed, and she was wearing the cutest hat! It looked striped and had a big flower on the side. After examining it more closely, I realized it was actually crocheted, but I thought I would try and make something similar that was knitted. So, I made up my own pattern and gave it a go!

I used Bernat Satin Sport yarn in “Wine”. I began by casting on 80 sts onto size 8 round needles and then placing a marker. I then purled 3 rows, knit 3 rows and repeated this another 6 times (for a totally of 7 sets of 6 rows).

I then placed 4 markers spaced every 20  stitches. I knit or purled (depending on where I was in the pattern) before and after each marker every other row until I had about a dozen stitches left. At that point, I cut a long tail and used a tapestry needle to pull the yarn through the remaining stitches and cinch the top of the hat.

For the side flower, I used a pattern I found online for a 6 petaled pin. You can view the pattern here:http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/hannele/hannele.html
I followed it pretty much exactly and had no trouble. I did change the "K1, M1" increases into "K1 in front, K1 in back" though, since I'm more comfortable with that method. The pattern doesn’t mention this, but in the photo (and on my hat), the petals should be joined alternating RS, WS facing you.

This is probably my favorite hat I’ve made and it SO comfy! I definitely plan to make something like this again and perhaps experiment with different floral patterns and designs