In praise of knitted hats

It has been chilly over the last few days so it is time to dig out the woolly hat collection.

A hand knitted hat is a lovely thing. It can fit in a pocket or a bag, can be as individual as you like and pulling it on is an instant piece of comfort.

Plus there are so many options. Vogue Knitting’s The Ultimate Hat Book lists 14 basic knitted hat shapes including cloches, bowlers and caps but the most common are variations of berets and beanies.

This Sirdar pattern shows some of the variations you find in hat patterns

The most useful – and endlessly variable – hat shape is the beanie (or bobble hat). You can find patterns for pretty much any weight of yarn, you can make plain ones or add pattern from cables or lace to stripes, fair isle or even intarsia or brioche colour work. You can have long slouchy ones or close fitting options, long folded ribs or short bands. There simply are infinite variations when it comes to beanies.

Embellishments can really make a difference to s simple beanie as in this Stylecraft Special XL pattern

You can go full bobble hat with a traditional wool pompom or a giant fur one – or other embellishments like tassels.

Beanie variations (clockwise from top left): Colourwork in Lotus Tibetan Cloud; Self striping yarn from JC Brett; A fur poppom finishes this simple ribbed beanie in Rico Essentials Cashlana; A colourful Comfort Aran baby hat from King Cole

This means you can create an individual hat to suit anyone you know. This makes them perfect gifts – a small piece of love and comfort that is created with that person in mind. And because a beanie only takes a few hours to make, some special hats in lovely yarns are still realistic options for some Christmas knitting.

And if you don’t fancy doing a beanie look out for a wide range of novelty hat patterns.

Shark Hat in Robin chunky