A few weeks back I had some interaction with Sarah from LoveCrafts.com and one of the things we discussed was donation crafting and she offered me the opportunity to try one of their yarns to make and donate hats to Operation Gratitude. The timing was perfect for me because I am usually in hat making mode this time of year anyway.

I decided to try one of the free patterns she pointed me to – Ribbed Knit beanies.

I love the yarn – Paintbox Simply Aran – it knit up nice and squishy and stretchy in the K1P1 rib pattern on size 10 needles but I don’t like counting rows on hats … one of the best things about knitting hats is that they are basically mindless until you get to the crown decreases so while I used the pattern for the number of stitches to cast on, the K1P1 ribbing, and the crown decreases, I knit until the hat was 9.5 inches from the cast on edge and then started my decreases. I had Keith try it on to make sure it was a good length with enough to fold up for the brim since I was adapting the pattern but I feel comfortable using this measurement now for the other hats.

I have more hats to make before I ship them off but I did go back and order some more of the Paintbox Simply Aran yarn – it’s on sale right now too! It’s an easy care acrylic yarn which makes it nice for donation hats and if YOU knit or crochet for donation, make sure to check out Operation Gratitude at the link above!