Pattern Scout
Knit a Beanie, Baby
Dear Ann,
Last weekend, a shiny new project jumped my queue, hitting pause on all works in progress. Show me your most convincing look of shock!
Who could blame me, though? Last week, Kirsten Kapur published the Seedling Beanie on Ravelry. It’s a supercute colorwork hat, a classic that’s suitable for all genders and styles, a gift that anyone would love to receive. And it will be done before your other projects even notice you’re gone!
To our delight, the Seedling Beanie was designed for MDK Atlas yarn—one skein of each of two colors.
The kicker: the pattern includes Kirsten’s illustrations of 12 possible two-color combos of Atlas shades. I couldn’t resist casting on. Just a little hat, and then right back to the sleeves of that pullover, I promised myself.
Color Dreaming
I mean, look at this:
Left to right, top row: Tutu/Navy, Clementine/Barn Red, Mallard/Clementine
Second row: Pear/Shale, Natural/Citron, Whisper/Mouse
Third row: Merlot/Mallard, Wintergreen/Peat, Cork/Truffle
Bottom row: Skyline/Lapis, Shale/Seaglass, Leek/Cedar
Kirsten’s color sense is so exciting that I want to knit them all, the neutrals and the brights, and especially Leek/Cedar and Natural/Citron.
For my first Seedling, I went with ingredients on hand and my own pairing of Leek/Merlot, for an autumnal beanie that dreams of spring, and wants to be a Missoni sweater when it grows up. I made the smaller of the two sizes, to fit a smaller adult-sized head.
I cast on last Friday night during a train ride, and I bound off Saturday evening after knitting through a couple of episodes of The Split. By Sunday afternoon, Seedling (er, Speed-ling!) Beanie had been lightly steamed and was ready for a beachy photo shoot.
leek + merlot
Fun fact: The finished beanie weighed in at just under 50g, so I’m fairly confident that you can get two of the smaller size of Seedling Beanie out of two skeins of Atlas.
More Hats on the Beach
Having a Kirsten Kapur hat on my needles took me back a few years, to a winter weekend when my sister-in-law Kathy and I made seven of Kirsten’s famous Thorpe hat for the youths in our group. We worked assembly-line style, dividing the hat into the types of knitting we each prefer, and passing the hats-in-progress back and forth as we moved from section to section.
Thorpes on the Beach, New Year’s Day 2012. Very happy to have an excuse to share this photo again.
Hey—we could do an assembly line for the Seedling Beanie! Kathy could do the ribbing on hat 1, hand it off to me for the colorwork while she works the ribbing on hat 2, and then she could do the crown decreases on hat 1 while I work the colorwork for hat 2 . . . and so forth, until all noggins in the vicinity are covered with Seedling Beanies.
I’ll have to see if Kathy is game this year.
Love,
Kay
I’m planning to pick my colors in person! Can’t wait to see you all and to squeeze some Atlas!
what are the colors of the person wearing the hat. its gorgeous looks like light ble and brown
Ah, if you are asking about the photos in the pattern, it’s Truffle and Cork.
Leek and merlot.
It’s Leek (pale green) and Merlot (maroon).
is there a coupon for the hat?
No the price is just reduced today on Ravelry.
Dang, Kay, you are such an enabler!
How did I miss all of those Thorpes? Thanks for this lovely post.
I thought I saw A smiling Jack O’ lantern at first! October!
I think Lapis and Citron to show support for Ukraine.
Love this idea!
I can’t wear a hat with wool in it because my forehead itches so much that I have to wear the Target ugly hats and I’m so glad that skiing helmets are in because for the first time I have a warm head. Bummer
I’ve knit the ribbing in cotton for friends with this issue. Go down a needle size or two for a ribbing that will hold, and make sure you get a fluffy, soft cotton.
Thorpe remains an all-time favorite knit – and a good reminder that I should add it back to my repertoir of hat knitting! I think I’d try mouse and citron for seedling!
I love Kirsten’s color sense! And the assembly line idea sounds like great fun! Now I have to round up some fellow knitters!
I love this pattern!
A friend of mine caught just a glimpse of this hat when I was scrolling through my Instagram. He asked me to send the pattern information to his mother so she could make him one for Christmas. That’s a great hat!
Barn red and truffle will be my first…and then citron and something and then…