Burly whirly hat in aqua blue with mods for kids

I made a hat from a Bernat pattern called roving – cable hat. I love it. I used malabrigo chunky in Tuareg 98.

I did change a few things. First of all, I never knit hats flat, so I made this in the round thus avoiding the “bald spot” in cables as someone called it on ravelry. Also, I upped the needle size. I am a loose knitter and even at the exact gauge my hat fit too tightly to be comfortable. I upped the needles to size 13 and probably could have gone to 15 and still had a great hat, but one that actually fit and poofed out a bit more.

Inspired by this beautiful hat, which I love, I made two for my kids. You’ll want to download the Bernat pattern to make sense of these directions.

For age 5-6
Cast on 48 st on size 9 needles. Join in the round, being careful not to twist and knit in a knit 1, purl 1 rib for 1 inch. Increase as follows: [(k2, m1) 5 times, k2] 4 times for a total of 68 st.

Switch to larger needles(size 13) and knit 1 round.

Do the double 4 on 4 cables 4 times, doing a purl st between each repeat. Then work 10 rounds even. Next round, k15, sspo( slip the next stitch, knit 1 stitch and pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch), 4 times to decrease the purl stitch.

Next cable row: k4, work the cables 4 times around.

Work 5 rows even then decrease:
K3, k2 together, until the last 4 stitches in the round, k4.Knit one round.
K2, k2 together, all the way around. Knit one round.
K1, k2 together, all the way around. Knit one round.
K2 together, all the way around. Knit one round.
K2 together, break yarn and pass through the remaining stitches.

For size 2-3
Cast on 40 stitches. Join being careful not to twist and knit in a knit 1 purl 1 ribbing for 3/4 inch.

Increase to 65 stitches, by working as follows m1, [(k2, m1) 4 times, k1, m1, k1, m1] 4 times.

You will do the cables the same way, except instead of a 4 on 4, you’ll do a 3 on 3, 5 times around, and finish off as the child’s hat above but only after 4 rows above the second set of cables and only 8 rows in between.