How to Knit a Men's Hat Step-by-Step

I wanted to show dad a little love this Father's Day and come up with a great gift idea for you to give to the dad or dads in your life. It's incredibly simple, but you'd never know it by looking at it. All right, I chose Lion Brand Touch of Alpaca yarn for this one because well, I love the heathering and the coloration and the natural look of the alpaca. But it might be a little itchy for sensitive skin. So feel free to sub with any medium weight yarn in your stash. Just be sure to check the gauge to make sure there aren't any sizing surprises. You'll start off with the long tail cast on as usual. 112 stitches to be exact. By the way, if you're wondering where you can find the pattern because you have other questions about the supplies I'm using, just check the description box below. You can view the pattern completely free on my website, or if you prefer to have a copy in hand to print or save for later, you can pick up the pdf from my shop. Just check the description for links to both. Okay, when you have all 112 stitches cast on, lay it flat like this and make sure it's not twisted. You want the braid to be along the inside so you don't have any issues later. And with the working yarn on one side, go ahead and grab a stitch marker. A ring one like this will work best for now. Or you can use a locking stitch marker, keeping it locked. Then knit the first stitch, and the next two stitches as well. Then pull the yarn to the front, and purl the next stitch. And repeat. Knit three, purl one. And that should bring you back to your stitch marker, ending on a purl stitch. So pass the marker over, and repeat the same thing. Knit three, purl one. Another way of looking at that repeat, if you're kind of struggling to remember things, is that you're simply knitting the knits and purling the purls. So this three by one rib, as it's often called, will look quite a bit like stockinette stitch when it's not stretched out. But as they're wearing the hat and it stretches a little, you'll see that purl row peeking through, and it looks really great. I love this stitch. So now you've seen the stitch pattern, and now you just have to keep it up for the length of the sides. The crown will add a little bit of length itself, but you'll want to keep going with this three by one rib until it measures about six and a half inches from the cast on edge. Then you're ready for the crown. Pass the marker over, as you normally would, and we'll jump right into a decrease. Slip the next two stitches purlwise, so just pass them from one needle to the next, and then knit them as if they were one. That's called a slip slip knit, or an SSK, as you'll see it written in the pattern. Then knit, and purl, and knit, and we'll work another decrease. This time it's different. Insert the needle through the next two stitches, and knit them as if they were one. And last but not least for the repeat, you'll purl. So that first decrease, the SSK, is a left leaning decrease, and the knit two together is a right leaning decrease. So the repeat for this row, once again, is SSK, knit, purl, knit, knit two together, and purl. So at the end of the round, if you've done everything correctly, you'll end with a purl, and that'll decrease your stitch count down to 84. Now at this point, the stitches should all still fit comfortably on your circulars, so we don't have to do anything with that just yet. And the next five rows are really simple. Just knit two and purl one. So right now I have finished through rounds five of the crown. I'm getting ready to start round six, but there's one really important thing you need to do when you start round six, and that is to transfer to a longer circular needle for the magic loop method so you can continue with the crown decreases. And it's quite a bit easier to transfer to a longer needle for the magic loop in a simple round like this, rather than wait until our decreasing round where things get a little bit more complicated. So you'll need another pair of circulars for this in the same needle size, but a longer cord. A 24 or a 32 inch will work great. You can even go 40 inches if that's what you have. And a little side note here, if you aren't using a locking stitch marker, you will want to switch to a locking stitch marker or bobby pin or something like that so you can keep track of the first stitch of the round. And from here, it's quite easy. Continue with the same stitch pattern, but work with one of each needle. You're working the stitches off of the shorter needle and onto the longer needle. Now if you recall, we had 84 stitches for the round that we're working on now. And what you'll want to do is split them evenly for the magic loop. So you'll work 42 stitches in your regular stitch pattern. And when you have 42 stitches, pull the cord through and keep working the remaining 42 stitches with a bunch of slack in the cord like this. Now this will all make sense in just a minute. I know this is kind of confusing, especially if this is your first time working magic loop, but it does get easier. And if this is your first time knitting a hat with crown decreases at all, you might be wondering, why in the heck am I making you do this? And that's a very valid question. Because if you continue to decrease the number of stitches in this circle, eventually, they'll no longer fit around the needles and you won't be able to slide them around and continue knitting with it. You'll only make that mistake once, and I can tell you that from experience. And this is what you should have. Cord on one side, needles on the other. Then flip it, slide the stitches on the front needle, and pull the back needle through, leaving a bit of cord on the side. You don't want to pull it through completely. This little piece of cord actually makes the whole thing work. Remove that marker, and we'll SSK. Then replace the marker so you know which stitch is the first of the round. And then purl one. Knit two together. And purl one. And that's the repeat. SSK, purl one, knit two together, purl one. But when you get to the end of that little cord, you might find yourself wondering, well, what am I supposed to do now? From here, flip the work, push the stitches on the front needle, pull the back needle through, and keep going with your repeat. And that's the basics of magic loop knitting. You'll always want to have that little loop of cord on the side. Again, that's what makes the whole thing work. And when you finish a row, just remember to flip it, push the stitches onto the front needle, pull the back needle through, that becomes your working needle, and of course, you'll want to leave a little loop on the side and keep going with your repeat. All right, at the end of that round, your stitch count should be 56, and you'll get a little break for now. So knit the first stitch, replace the marker, and purl the next stitch. And that's the repeat for rounds 8 through 11. And when you finish that little repeat, it'll look something like this, and we're in the final stretch. So we have just one more decreasing round. Remove the marker, and ssk, replace the marker, and knit two together. And that's the repeat. Ssk, knit two together. At the end of this round, your stitch count will be 28. And now for my favorite hat bind off. This is so simple and so practical. Cut yourself a nice long tail, like 12 inches or so will do. Thread that on a yarn needle, and run it through each of the remaining stitches, sliding it off the knitting needle as you go. Now, I'm just sticking my needle through knit-wise. It makes it a little bit neater. And when you get to the cord, don't worry, just slide it through and keep going. Now, I will say with this many stitches, we'll have a little bit of texture at the crown of the hat, and this was intentional for this pattern, but if for some reason you'd rather not have that, and you feel comfortable going a little rogue, just work one more decreasing round like you did in round 12. Pull the yarn carefully, not to break it, and then run the needle around the opening, tightening it as you go. I even like to flip it inside out and run the tail around the opening on the inside a couple more times before I tie a knot and trim the yarn. And all that's left is to weave in the ends. Now, I just want to say how much I really do appreciate you sticking with me and watching the entire video. That helps me in more ways than you can imagine. Now, I would love to know if you want me to make more men's knit hats. Go ahead and hit the like button. That'll do two wonderful things. It'll help more people find this tutorial, and it'll tell me exactly what you want from me in future tutorials. And if you still need a yarn fix, don't worry, I have you covered. Check out one of these videos if you want to try your hand at another project, or if you just want to enjoy watching the calming rhythm of the stitches. Happy knitting, and I'll see you in the next one.