Marley Hat

I think I've mentioned before my love of rainbows. I have been dying to knit up Susan Anderson's Rainbow Marley (rav), but the cost factor of 6 yarns always put it at the bottom of the can-do list. Plus it's knit up in cotton. *gag, gag, hack* My least favorite yarn to knit up.

That is until I remembered dishcloths. You confused, because you're thinking to yourself, "What do dishcloths have to do with brightly, knit toddler hats?" Well, look at it from another angle. I knit up cheap, cotton dishcloths all the time and I already had four of the six necessary colors. Now are you with me? That's right I only had to invest another three dollars to knit up this baby:


I think I am in love. Scratch that. I know I am in love.


Pattern: Rainbow Marley (rav) from Itty-Bitty Hats. I've knit up at least 5 of these patterns and have plans for more. My favorite knitting book so far. Honestly.
Yarn: Dishcloth cotton in red, orange, yellow, blue, navy and purple.
Needles: Size 7 US
Size: This should fit a 1-2 year old depending on head size.
Mods: The directions for making the topper were a little vague. While the first section on making the tassels were clear, all that casting off and casting on was a little difficult. I ended up using a knitted on cast-on instead of the recommended backward method. My loops wouldn’t curl as well without the tension of the knitted cast-on.

However, the directions for making the separate stripes turn into a pompom just plain sucked. I ended up using a crochet hook to weave one of the tails through the bottom edge of all four to make a solid piece of knitting. (Although I did not do this, I would suggest alternating which strand you pick up next, so that your pompom doesn’t turn out with solid rows of color like mine did.) Then I tied the ends together with the remaining tails to form a hollow sort of ball.

Lastly I pulled the tails through the hole at the top of the cap and knotted them on the underside so that they wouldn’t pull back through. You could weave in four tails and have the most secure pompom ever, but I didn’t want to mess with all that especially after weaving in all the tails from the color changes in the hat. The finishing point at the top was a little thick anyway from weaving in that final tail.