UN-THUMB: A Whimsical Thumbed Hat Knitting Pattern by Kyla Hurst - A Response to a Playful Knitting Community Challenge

UN-THUMB

An original pattern by Kyla Hurst

Way back in early spring we had a Mystery KAL on the Criminal Knits group. We made a lovely cowl, mitten and hat set. There were a few issues that I had with the placement of thumbs on the mittens. Everyone else made a left mitt, I made a right mitt! Much hilarity ensued about where I would have thumbs on my hat. It has been months and still the teasing continues. What could I do? I had to design a thumbed hat!

Materials:

-Approx. 150 m of worsted weight yarn (MC) -Small amounts of worsted weight yarn in 2 contrasting colours. (CC1, CC2) - 3.75mm circ needle - 4.5mm circ and dpn needles -good sense of silliness!

Let's begin!

With smaller needles cast on 100 sts. Work 2x2 ribbing for 1 inch. (k2, p2) Increase 4 sts evenly across next round. Work 6 rounds in stockinette. witch to larger needles and work fair-isle chart Return to smaller needles and knit 6 rounds in stockinette.

Thumb Section:

1. k4, with waste yarn k5, place sts back onto lefthand needle and knit the 5 sts again, k47, with waste yarn k5, place sts back onto left-hand needle and knit the 5 sts again, k to end. 2. knit 6 rounds 3. repeat round 1 4. knit 6 rounds 5. repeat round 1 6. (k11, k2tog) repeat to end of round 7. knit 8. (k10, k2tog) repeat to end of round 9. knit 10.(k9, k2tog) repeat to end of round 11. knit 12. (k8, k2tog) repeat to end of round 13. repeat round 1 14. (k7, k2tog) repeat to end of round 15. (k6, k2tog) repeat to end of round 16. (k5, k2tog) repeat to end of round 17. (k4, k2tog) repeat to end of round 18. (k3, k2tog) repeat to end of round 19. (k2, k2tog) repeat to end of round 20. (k1, k2tog) repeat to end of round 21. (k2tog) repeat to end of round (8st

Thumb #1:

Switch to CC2 1. Knit 6 rounds 2. (k2tog) repeat to end of round 3. pull yarn through remaining sts and pull tight.

Thumbs:

Remove waste yarn, catching live sts as you go. (There will be 10 on top and 10 on bottom.) 1. k5, pick-up and knit 1 st in “corner', k5, pick-up and knit 1 st in “corner. (12 sts) 2. knit 6 rounds 3. (k2tog) repeat to end of round (6sts) 4. (k2tog) repeat to end of round (3sts) 5. pull yarn through remaining sts and pull tight. Repeat for remaining thumbs. Weave in all ends. Lightly block and wear with pride!

Alternate Options:

If for some crazy reason you don't relish the idea of walking around with a thumb-hawk you can easily knit the hat without them. Just ignore instructions for the placement of thumbs and knit even over those 5 Sts. Fair-isle not your cup of tea? What about placing beads instead of using CC1. If that sounds even crazier, how about just a simple purl st where the chart indicates CC1.

This pattern may be used by individuals for personal use only. It may not be sold, copied, used to produce items for sale or used in a compilation of any kind without the expressed written consent of the designer. Thank you!

Chart:

Please excuse the sad nature of this chart. I promise I will figure this out soon! Please start reading them from the bottom of the page and move up. All charts are read from right to left starting at bottom corner. It may be easier to cut them out and line them up in one row, but it turned out way too small to read when I tried to print it that way!

Legend: X CC1