My Charlie Brown Hat Project
So, I got this idea stuck in my head – needed a Charlie Brown hat. You know the one, bright yellow with that black zig-zag thing. Seemed like a fun little project.
First thing, had to get the yarn. Went down to the local craft shop. Found a yellow that was just perfect, really bright like in the cartoon. Grabbed some black yarn too, just standard stuff. Had some knitting needles already, think they were size 8, maybe? Good enough.
Got home, settled on the couch. Casting on was easy. Just looped the yarn onto the needle. Didn’t count precisely, just enough so it looked like it would fit my head eventually. Started knitting. Round and round, just the basic knit stitch. Nothing fancy.
Knitted quite a bit of the yellow body. Took a while, just chugging along while watching some old shows. Needed enough height before the tricky part.
Adding the Zig-Zag
Okay, the black zig-zag. This was the bit I wasn’t sure about. Thought about sewing it on afterwards, but figured knitting it in would look better. This took some planning.
Had to figure out how many stitches up, how many across, how many down. Sketched it out roughly on paper. Then started knitting, switching between the yellow and black yarn. It was fiddly. Had to keep the yarns from tangling too much behind the work. Made a few mistakes, had to pull back a row or two. Patience, right?
- Switched to black, knitted a few stitches up diagonally.
- Switched back to yellow.
- Switched to black again for the down part.
- Repeated that all the way around.
It wasn’t perfect, let me tell you. The joins between colors were a bit messy if you looked close. But from a distance? Looked like Charlie Brown’s hat alright.
Once the zig-zag was done, I knitted a few more rows of plain yellow. Then started decreasing stitches at the top – knitting two stitches together, spacing it out, making the circle smaller and smaller. Finally, cut the yarn, threaded it through the last few stitches, and pulled it tight to close the hole.
Last step, always the most annoying: weaving in the loose ends. Had the starting tail, the end tail, and all those little black and yellow ends from the zig-zag part. Tucked them all in with a yarn needle.
And that was it. Stood back and looked. My own Charlie Brown hat. Fits pretty well. Keeps my head warm. Looks pretty iconic, if I do say so myself. A good weekend project, really.
