Knit Custom Hats with Kate Atherley

Tell us about Custom-Fit Hats!

Not just a standard pattern book, this is a complete recipe for making your own custom-fit hats, for any head, with any yarn. Because the hats are worked top-down, you can just grab a skein and start knitting – no swatching, no calculating. With instructions for slouchy and beanie-style hats, and tutorials added for decorative flourishes like different cuff finishes and pom-poms and tassels, this book has everything you’ll ever need to keep everyone in your family warm.

It includes a discussion of yarn – suggestions for fibres to use for maximum warmth or comfort, ideas for using up leftovers and combining yarns, and even provides a yardage table so you can make sure you have enough when stash-diving.

Who did you have in mind when you wrote Custom-Fit Hats?

I was thinking about me and my friends, at first: I live in Canada now, and every autumn every Canadian knitter’s mind turns to hats. The winters are cold here, and head-coverings are crucial. Although I absolutely adore the clever and innovate hats of designers like Woolly Wormhead, everyone needs a plain everyday hat to take them through the worst weather.

Even if you don’t have to worry about blizzards and below-freezing temperatures, hats are a key accessory for your winter wardrobe – a wool hat is terrific in the rain. They’re also an excellent skill-builder project for newer knitters.

I wrote it for those of us who have boxes of leftover yarns and gorgeous single skeins to use up. And for those of us wanting to make quick gifts at Christmas-time. Hats are perfect for achieving both of those goals: at the same time, even!

I make at least two or three hats every autumn, usually from stash yarn and leftovers, and this book shares how I do it.

I included a detailed table of head measurements, so that if you are making gifts, you’ve got all the information you need, without having to ask your friends and family to find a tape measure.

This is a complete recipe for making your own custom-fit hats, for any head, with any yarn

In Custom-Fit Hats you talk knitters through top-down hats, which might be new to some knitters. Tell us more!

One of my main issues with hat knitting was that I would always get the length wrong: they’d either be too long and look silly, or too short and leave my ears uncovered and cold. I started knitting hats top down so that I could try them on and make sure they were exactly the length and fit I wanted.

Working top down is a super way to help you manage yarn usage. If you’re running short, using a different yarn for the brim looks a lot more attractive and intentional that having the top few rounds of the decrease be in a different colour. Or, if you’ve got extra yardage, make a fold-over cuff for extra warmth. For the white hat used up every single metre of some special cashmere I was given as a gift.

And, of course, if you’re making them custom-fit, working top down means that you don’t have to swatch or do any preparation: you make it fit as you go.

TWO FREE PATTERNS FROM KATE

Kate Atherley is our featured knitting designer of the month for September 2021! We'll be checking in with her throughout the month and CraftWorld Premium members can download two of her gorgeous patterns for free.

You are a fabulous teacher. What is your approach to teaching knitting and design?

I want knitters to feel that they can take charge of their knitting, and make it the way that they want. I like knitters to not just follow a pattern, but understand why things are done the way they are, and how things work – so that they can change them!

This book therefore, is not just a single pattern, but a full explanation of how hats should fit, what yarn choices work best, and what you can do to make them right for the wearer: whether for adults or kids, for premature babies or those losing their hair due to medical treatments or illness.

Do you think it’s important to teach knitters how to customize their knits?

I think it’s really important that knitters know how to make their projects their own. I want knitters to be able to tweak a pattern or project to fit exactly their needs: their budget, their yarn preferences, their favourite colours and style. And most importantly, I want knitters to be able to make things that fit properly! We’re all different shapes and sizes, and if we’re going to invest the time and effort and love to make something, it should be exactly right.

Find out more about Kate get your copy of her incredible new book at www.kateatherley.com

Published by Nine Ten Publications