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I have fallen a bit behind on sharing my latest projects. These Rugby Hats are from early in the month and were great fun. Lots of stockinette, but interesting silhouettes and color play in varying stripes. I was inspired by the traditional rugby shirts for both the colors and the striping sequences. The size of the projects made them quite portable and perfect for working on at my knitting groups. I’m thinking I’m going to knit one for each of my nephew’s in their respective school colors for Christmas this year.

The Rugby Slouch was the first of the three hats that I knit up. It was knit in Dream in Color Classy - it made me fall in love with that yarn! I’m finding excuses to use it frequently :-) The version you see here wasn’t the first one. I actually had knit an entire hat before this one. To put it nicely, it was amusing.

Are you familiar with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids? Can you picture Dumb Donald? He was the one with the green jersey and the big pink hat that hung down over most of his face. Well, the first version of this hat was eerily similar to Dumb Donald’s. When I finished it I proudly put it on and headed upstairs. I think DH just about spit his water out his nose when he saw me. I thought it looked great and was a nice slouchy hat. My hands felt nice slouch and it seemed like a good fit. Well, after Drew asked if I purposefully knit a pimp hat I had to go look in the mirror. He was right. It was bad, bad, bad! Perhaps I should have kept it instead of ripping and made it part of my Halloween costume!

Now this hat, the Rugby Hat, went nice and smoothly. Well, aside from having to check my mug for llama hairs each time I went to take a sip of my mocha when I was at SnB. The yarn used for this one was Cascade Pastaza, a wool/llama singles yarn. I knit it at a slighlty tighter gauge than suggested. This was partly to secure the llama a bit and to provide more wind resistance. It can get awfully windy here, especially in the fall and spring when one may be watching an outdoor sport in chilly and windy conditions. With the smaller stripes I just carried the yarns. For a bit of a whimsical top to it I added a small tassel. I often find little finishing details can really make a simple project shine.

The Nightcap Rugby was the last of the hat trio that I knit. I wanted something a tad offbeat so opted for a longer and pointier shape. To help weight the tip down a tad I added a small, but full pom pom. The color combo was inspired by the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

I generally stay away from pom poms. I find the homemade versions to be a bit anemic and sometimes prone to shedding. One trick shared with me by Amanda for a fuller pom pom is to make one larger than desired and trim it down to the size you want. I used my 3-inch vintage pom pom maker I got from my grandmother several years ago to make this one. The actual pom pom is roughly half that size and it looks nice and full and so far it hasn’t shed a yarn!

All these hats were a great opportunity to explore jogless striping techniques. There are many tutorials out there for different ways to achieve jogless stripes when knitting in the round, but I find different ones work better in different types of striping situations. I’ve included the options that worked best for me in each pattern.

Each pattern is available individually for $3, or you can get all 3 patterns for $6. If you buy the collection you get the 3 files for the individual patterns as well as a version that combines all three in a format that makes mixing and matching the shapes with the different stripe sequences easier and saves paper and ink. The individual versions include a bit more detailed information and photos. You can choose which version you want to print.

Rugby Hat - $3 add to cart
Rugby Slouch - $3 add to cart
Rugby Nightcap - $3 add to cart
Rugby Hat Collection - $6 add to cart
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I’d like to thank the My Sister Knits gang for modeling the hats for me!