Wee Protesters

I knitted nine pussyhats for the women's march in January, then offered to knit some Geneie Pussyhats for anyone who would buy the yarn (I'd used up all my pink stash). Several friends planning on going to the March for Science took me up on it. One is about to give birth to triplets.

She had sent a giant skein of Red Heart, so with plenty of yarn to play with, I thought I'd whip up some tiny pussyhats as a surprise gift and a fourth one for her two-year-old.

I was surprised when I went on Ravelry that I didn't find any patterns for kids' sizes. There were about 5 patterns for brooches and a few for dolls, but nothing explicitly for newborns and toddlers.*

So here's mine:

Pussyhat for Wee Protesters

Materials:

• worsted weight yarn
• size 4 DPNs
• stitch marker
• tapestry needle

Techniques

• knitting in the round
• kitchener stitch (there's a ton of great videos on YouTube)

Gauge:  5 st/in.

Instructions for Preemie Size

• CO 48 stitches on DPNs and join in the round, being careful not to twist stitches and using a stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round.
• K2P2 for 4 rounds.
• Work in stockinette stitch (knit every row) for 16 rounds, or until work measures 2.75" from cast on.
• Cut yarn leaving a 30" tail so that you have plenty of yarn to work with.
• Redistribute stitches so that you have 24 stitches each on 2 DPNs. Use kitchener stitch and the tapestry needle to close the top.
• Weave in ends.

The pattern could also be knitted flat and seamed, but I don't like seams in baby hats. You could also choose to close the top with a 3-needle bind off or by casting off and seaming the top closed.

Babies come in all sizes. Since I'm assuming these triplets will be pretty tiny, I made a preemie size (to fit an orange). Newborn babies have grapefruit-sized heads (at least that's what I was told when charity knitting). You can adjust this hat to be smaller or larger by simply subtracting or adding stitches in multiples of 4.

Instructions for Newborn Size

• CO 56 stitches on DPNs and join in the round, being careful not to twist stitches and using a stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round.
• K2P2 for 5 rounds.
• Work in stockinette stitch (knit every row) until work measures 3.5" from cast on.
• Cut yarn leaving a 36" tail so that you have plenty of yarn to work with.
• Redistribute stitches so that you have 28 stitches each on 2 DPNs. Use kitchener stitch and the tapestry needle to close the top.
• Weave in ends.

Instructions for Toddler Size

• CO 64 stitches on DPNs and join in the round, being careful not to twist stitches and using a stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round.
• K2P2 for 6 rounds.
• Work in stockinette stitch (knit every row) until work measures 4" from cast on.
• Cut yarn leaving a 48" tail so that you have plenty of yarn to work with.
• Redistribute stitches so that you have 32 stitches each on 2 DPNs. Use kitchener stitch and the tapestry needle to close the top.
• Weave in ends.

Thanks so much to Kat Coyle for inspiring the original pussyhat project.


*Both sides take their kids to protests. I'm not invested in whether anyone thinks kids should protest or not. If you don't want your kids to protest, don't take them. Don't worry about how other people parent their children.