Seitwärts Hat - or Sideways with Stripes

This easy hat can be knitted up fast - using about one skein of yarn plus some leftovers of the same weight. Apart from some intermediate techniques, it is quite an easy pattern. The techniques are the use of the magic CO at the start and grafting at the end. So it may be a good project for a beginner who wants to practice these techniques.

As you may have guessed, seitwärts is the German word for sideways.


This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.






Materials

• about 60 to 70 grams of DK weight yarn - I used one full skein (as MC) and the leftovers from 3 other skeins (CC1, CC2, CC3)
• 3.5mm circular needles
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends
• two stitch-markers

Techniques

• Judy's Magic Cast-On is a technique that gives you live stitches on both sides of your needle - it is generally used for toe-up socks (e.g. in this pattern), but it can be used for other purposes as well. Here's a written description (from Knitty) and here's a YouTube-video by Cat Bordhi and another YouTube-video by Very Pink Knits. 
• Grafting in Stockinette Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam that looks like stockinette stitch https://youtu.be/W7i5JwEReW0
• Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam that looks like garter stitch - as shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.
• If you don't like grafting, you can use the Three Needle Bind Off as an alternative: https://youtu.be/Ph93jWSzTa0

Gauge and Measurements
In stockinette stitch, I had the following gauge: 34 rows gave 10 cm in height and 24 stitches gave 10 cm in width.
Since you're knitting sideways until you've reached the desired girth the height of your hat (i.e. the width of your knitting) is all you need to get right at the beginning. The hat I knitted with the gauge above measures 21 cm in height, so if you want to a different height, adjust your CO accordingly.

Instructions
With MC do a magic CO of 2x50 stitches - i.e. on each of your needles there are 50 sts.
Turn your piece so that you're looking at the side with the garter stitch bumps.
Set-up Row (WS): ktbl 15, pm, ptbl 35 (now your at the point where you change to the other needle and turn), p35, pm, k15
Row 1 (RS): sl1, k all
Row 2 (WS): sl1, k to marker (or k14), p to next marker (or p70), k to end (or k15)
Repeat rows 1 and 2 nine more times and then insert stripes:
In CC1: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC2: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC3: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC2: knit rows 1 and 2 twice
In CC1: knit rows 1 and 2 twice

Then continue rows 1 and 2 in MC until the hat is wide enough to fit your head.

Of course, you can do any striping pattern you want. The striping pattern I choose is mainly due to the amount of yarn I had left over, plus I wanted something non-semetrical.

Once the lower edge fits around your head (when you stretch it a bit), finish the hat as follows:

• Knit 50 stitches (to half of the row). Make sure, that you are really in the middle of the row, i.e. count your stitches, because it isn't fun to undo grafting if you have not counted correctly (believe me!).
  Graft 35 sts in stockinette and 15 sts in garter stitch.
• Alternatively, turn the hat inside out and do a three needle BO.

Weave in ends and block.