Christmas Hats

Our new little one is here!  And the holidays is nearly upon us!🎄 Since I know that one of the traditions that my lil' bro and his wife has is to go to our local City & County Christmas tree festival, I thought it'd be cute to make a baby Santa Hat for her! 😍 Using my leftover yarn from her blanket and my Denise US 7 (4.5mm) needles, here's what I did:

1. Cast on 80 sts
2. Do a 1x1 rib for 6 rows
3. Alternate red and white (every other stitch) in stockinette for 17 rows
4. Knit 1 row using the white yarn only
5. Switch to US 5 (3.75mm) needles, decrease 9 sts (decreasing every 8 sts), total 71 sts
6. Continue stockinette st for 12 rows using white yarn
7. Start decreasing the hat in pattern by 9 sts (decrease every 6 or 7 sts to the last 3 sts), total 62 sts
8. Knit 2 rows
9. Decrease 7 sts (decrease every 8 sts), total 55 sts
10. Knit 2 rows
11. Decrease 5 sts (decrease 1st, 24th, 26th, 36th and last sts), total 50 sts
12. Knit 2 rows
13. Decrease 5 sts (decrease every 8 sts to the last 5 sts, k), total 45 sts
14. Knit 2 rows
15. Decrease 5 sts (decrease every 9 sts to the last 5 sts, k2, k2tog, k), total 40 sts
16. Knit
17.  Decrease 8 sts (decrease 1st, 8th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 24th, 28th, and last sts ), total 32 sts
18. Knit
19. Decrease 8 sts (decrease 2nd, 4th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 20th, and 23rd sts), total 24 sts
20. Decrease 5 sts (decrease every 4th sts), total 19 sts
21. Decrease 7 sts (*k2tog, k*, repeat 4 times, k2tog twice), total 12 sts
22. Decrease 6 sts (k2tog six times), total 6 sts
23. Bind off
24. Make a pom pom

Man, for such a little hat, it was not that easy to make.  First of all, the red and white portion was a lot harder to switch colours than I thought it would be.  Perhaps my next accessory will be a yarn guide/stranded ring (like this) for myself.  That might've made it easier.  Then, making the top portion of the hat was another endeavor in and of itself!  First, I thought I'd be all fancy and use a seed stitch pattern but, it bulged out like a b-i-g puff.  So I thought it was my needle size; so, I ripped it out and started again using smaller needles.  To no avail, it was still funky looking since I just couldn't get the same gauge as the red and white portion.  So, I ripped it out again!  This time, I used even smaller needles and tried again using a double seed stitch pattern this time (I thought it would help if the pattern wasn't so tight).  It was better but as I was ready to decrease, the bulge became apparent (again).  Soooooo, I ripped it out (again!) and (finally) conceded that I needed to make the top portion in a regular boring stockinette stitch.  Thinking that the original needle size I used for the red and white portion would suffice, I went round and round until ... The bulge came back.  More ripping ensued.  I finally figured it out (as such the pattern above). 😅

Here's her very first Christmas hat:

I hope it fits her and that my lil' bro and sissy find it cute on our lil' one! 🐣

And not to leave my lil' bro and sissy out, I made them a pair of matching hats:

For my lil' bro

For my lil' sissy

Pattern: Spoke

Happy Christmas!🎄

Update:. Here's my all my kiddos in their Christmas hats! 😍