the cyclone hat – a knitting recipe

did you ever put on a sleeve and it was twisted and you couldn’t get through? or tights? these are just prone to twist and make you a hard time pulling them up. This twist however was the idea for the Cyclone hat – I wanted something with a twisted crown and I started knitting and it actually worked the way I felt it might! whoop whoop.

Super big plus with Cyclone: you don’t increase or even decrease.

Extra big plus: it’s double layered, which means it’s warm. I like that. Oh and this also makes two hats in one, you can reverse it!

I prefer to call this pattern a recipe, as I feel like I want you to understand the idea behind this hat, so you will be able to make Cyclone for any person, with any yarn and any needle and use whatever stitch pattern you like. So super adjustable too.

(I might have called this hat the “super hat” – I just realise there’s a lot of supers in this text so far.)

Anyways, now onto the recipe:

#cyclonehat 

yarn and needles: choose whatever you like! yes whatever. I would recommend not to go with needles bigger than 4.5 mm. You want to get a fabric that will flow nicely, so choose a needle that will allow you this with your chosen yarn. Also if you knit very tightly normally, go up a needle size. Keep in mind that Cyclone is double layered, so the yarn you choose will be double layered too. Going too big might end up too warm.

The one pictured here was made with 3mm needles and Malabrigo Mechita yarn (in colorway dried orange) – just so you get an idea. (for a few pictures and details on a slouchy version click here)

swatch: well – in generel I’m always pro the swatching. In this case (as we are making a hat) and you don’t feel all bad about ripping your knitting out when you don’t like what you get or if it’s not going to fit – just go ahead and cast on (rip in case you need to) otherwise, make a swatch! count your stitches per 10 cm and multiply them with 5.4. This will get you the number of stitches you need to fit your head.

(why 5.4? – simple math: assuming your head circumference is 56cm and you want a nice snug fit, you would go with 54cm. According to rule of three you’d multiply with 54/10, which is 5.4)

the trick: Cyclone is knitted in one piece. With a provisional cast on you’ll knit a tube in the circumference of your head, then after reaching the desired length and before sewing both ends together you’ll twist the hat 180° and then you’ll sew it closed, might sound a bit weird right now, but you’ll see – trust me:

cast on: as mentioned above cast on as many stitches as it takes to get around your head. I would recommend a provisional cast on for example with the crochet method.

Cyclone is reversible so you’ll be knitting two hats in one. Basically you will knit one piece that consists of a first hat – a brim – and a second hat. After you’ve cast on the desired number of stitches now knit the first hat. Use whatever pattern you like, I made a simple stockinette stitch one for my first side. It will lay nicely and smooth.

Knit in this way until you reach 19.5 cm length.

Now it’s time for the brim, (k1,p1) is always a nice tight brim. (I went on with the same yarn and went for 1×1). If you want something different, go for it. (k2, p2) or (k3, p1) or (k1, p3) are just a few options. Knit in your chosen brim pattern until brim measures 11cm.

And the second hat will follow: again choose something you like and knit until you reach 19.5 cm in length. (I went for broken seed stitch and added nice pale green, the ends of this I’ve sewn in. Other than that I kept going with the first color)

The total length of your Cyclone will therefore be 19.5+11+19.5=50cm

This length is the length you want to have in the end, if you feel like a shorter or wider brim, adjust the two hat parts accordingly. If you want more slouchy-ness, make both hat parts equally longer.

Bind off: Now the trick to make things easy – crucial step – knit another half round in stitch pattern. Only a half round (well maybe an extra 10 or so stitches for good measure). This will make sure, when grafting, that you’ll automatically twist the hat at 180° and that the stitches to graft are next to each other.

Put the provisional cast on stitches back on some extra needles (they don’t need to be exact size, a little smaller is welcome, only make sure your stitches won’t slip too easy).

Now cut the yarn about 4 times the length of the circumference of your hat, put the yarn tail on a darning needle and holding both ends of the hat together (so essentially fold one half into the other, wrong sides facing each other), start binding off/grafting. As you’ve knit another half round, holding both ends of the hat together will twist the hat in itself. This will create the twisted crown effect. It’s pretty easy overall, only might sound a bit strange at first.

Here’s a video on a tubular bind off, this made me finally understand the logic of sewing two knitting fabrics together. Start watching at about 3.40min, here you see the two fabric layers, how to measure your yarn end and the “in and out” move to graft.

And now it’s done, sew in ends and wear your Cyclone with joy 🙂

if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below

hugs Diana