SK8TR Boy Knit Hat

My oldest son loves skateboarding. He and one of his friends are dressing up as skateboarders for Halloween. Love it! That means I am not too involved in coming up with or making his costume.

However, he was trying to explain to me what kind of cool hat he needed when I showed him this hat named "We Call Them Pirates" from Hello Yarn. That clenched it. I should have kept my big mouth shut, because then he HAD to have this hat for Halloween.

Being ever the non-conformist (not really), I made some adjustments to the pattern to make it work for what needles and yarn I already had, and to hopefully help it go more quickly since I only had 10 days to make it--along with everything else going on in my life. So here is my revised Chunky version:

Materials:
Size 11 (or 10 1/2) US 16" circular needles
Size 11 Dpns
Lion Brand® Wool-Ease® in BLACK (1 skein)
Red Heart® Soft Yarn in WHITE (1 skein)

***I just have to say that the only reason I have 2 different brands of yarn is because neither brand carried the other color when I was at Jo-Ann's. What is up with that? Aren't black and white the basics? Anyhoo....

Cast on 60 stitches using double strand of Black.
Tie ends together, place marker.

Ribbing:
Knit rounds 1-3 in *K1, P1* pattern, repeated thru entire round.

Body of hat:
Round 4:
Change to White (double strand also) and knit entire round
Round 5:
Change to Black and knit entire round

For Skull Pattern:
I eliminated columns 1 & 2 and started with column 3 and continued with pattern thru column 32. This pattern gets repeated one more time during a round. If you need to place a marker after the first complete pattern to keep track of your position.

I only copied rows 9-20. Whereas the original pattern ends up with 24 skulls on the hat, this pattern will end up with only 4 skulls, albeit rather large ones.


Finishing of body:
Knit 1 round BLACK
Knit 1 round WHITE
Knit next 6 rounds in BLACK

Shaping Crown:
*K4, K2tog*, repeat til end of round (50 stitches)
Knit entire round
*K3, K2tog*, repeat til end of round (40 stitches)
Knit entire round
*K2, K2tog*, repeat til end of round (30 stitches)
Knit entire round
*K1, K2tog*, repeat til end of round (20 stitches)
Knit entire round
K2tog repeated til end of round (10 stitches)
K2tog repeated til end of round (5 stitches)
Cut a tail and weave end closed, tying off on inside of the hat.

Happy Halloween! Be safe and have a great night!