River's Accordion Hat

by Dorothy Hall
(Siloam Springs, AR)

I finished this ultra soft striped hat just in time for River's first camping trip. The accordion pattern's alternating stripes of knit and purl stitches creates a great stripe pattern where the light blue seems like the main color with only snippets of other colors peaking through the folds. Instead of finishing the hat with leaves on the ends of i-cords, I omitted the leaves and simply knotted the ends of the i-cords. This hat is super cute and super comfy.

I used Classic Elite Yarn's Fresco (60% wool/30% baby alpaca/10% angora)in Light Blue (#5304), Dark Blue (#5310), Light Green (#5335), Dark Green (#5360), and one oddball of Classic Elite Yarn's Lush (50% wool/50% angora) in Red (#4111). All of these were scraps leftover from making River's first stocking. I knit the hat on a #5 16 inch circular needle, and switched to bamboo size 5 double points when I began decreasing stitches to shape the crown.


The pattern is Charlotte Bouchet's Leafy Accordion Hat found for free on Ravelry.

This hat knit up quick and easy. I didn't have any problems following the instructions, and I finished it with just a couple nights of Law and Order reruns.

I often have trouble getting baby hats to fit just right, either they come out way too tiny or much too big. It's always nice when I finish a hat that works from the day it comes off the needles. This hat fit him fine at 4 months for our camping trip, and it's even better now that he is 6 months. And with the accordion striping, the hat stretches enough to fit my 2 1/2 year old as well. River will be wearing this hat for the rest of the winter and for many more moons to come.