Rainbow Striped Nightcap

After deciding that socks were not happening, I started looking around for a new idea of what to use my striping yarn for... For some reason I have been toying with the idea of making a nightcap... you know, those old-timey hats that people wear to sleep in, like Ebenezer Scrooge has in Muppet Christmas carol.

As a lot of nightcaps are striped, I figured it might be cool to see how the skein would turn out as a hat. The shape and diminishing size would also result in stripes of varying sizes throughout the hat which had the potential to look cool.

There are some patterns for nightcaps out there, but as most call for a much heavier weight yarn, they were essentially useless to me in this case. Luckily this shape shouldn't be too difficult at all.

Brim Complete

I started with a ribbed brim with enough rows to go around my head comfortably, then slowly tapered off. These hats can be a range of lengths, so I knew I could just keep going as I saw fit until I was out of yarn. That is excellent since I wanted to finish this skein in one go.

About 5 inches into the hat body.

I got most of the way though the hat... about 13 inches from the brim, when I decided that two things were happening... 1) I didn't like how I had tapered off. It visually looked like I had tapered off, then widened, then got smaller again. 2) I was pretty close to the end and still had a lot of yarn left. I knew I wanted to make a pom for the end, but still...

Here's the taper off I didn't like...

Once I started over from the 5 inch mark I made a more gradual decline in size. This made the hat a little longer, meant I would use more yarn in the wider rows, and make a nice triangle shape.

Finished hat with brim folded up. You can see the slight jog in color at the seam.

The pom was pretty fun too. The way the yarn stripes I got a striped pom as well!

Finished hat, brim down.

I'm not sure I can recommend making one of these with this thin of yarn. It was pretty tedious and slow going, especially when worsted or even a light worsted would go so much faster. Still I am happy I used the yarn I got for something cool. This would look adorable on a kid, I have to think. If you are interested in buying it, let me know. It does fit me, but it's pretty snug.

Size: 9" wide at base, 22.5" long from brim to pom
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time to complete: 10 hours

Rainbow Striped Nightcap Pattern

Ribbed Brim:

Chain 16

Row 1: 1 sc in second chain from hook and each ch to the end. [15 sc]

Row 2: In back loops only, sc in each across. ch 1 and turn. [15]

Repeat row 2 until work fits around head comfortably or 18 in u stretched or approx 20 inches slightly stretched.

Ch 1 and Slip stitch first row to end of work creating a circular band. Ch 1 and turn to start working on the long side. 

Hat:

* Notes: Always slip stitch to first and ch1 before next row. It is about 3 rows for 1/2 inch, 6 for a full inch, if using the same weight of yarn. This was a little snug on some people so you might want to do more sc around the brim than I started with. 

Work sc around brim as appropriate, I did 104 before joining with a slip stitch to the first. 

R1:104 sc around

SC around until it reaches 4 inches in height from the first row. (not the brim)

R2: [12sc, dec]*   [91]  (7 times repeated around)

SC around for enough rows to have 5” from the brim. 

R3: [11 sc, dec]*   [84]   

SC around for enough rows to have 6.5” from the brim. 

R4: [10 sc, dec]*  [77]

SC around for enough rows to have 8” from the brim. 

R5: [9 sc, dec]*  [70]

SC around for enough rows to have 9.5” from the brim. 

R6: [8 sc, dec]*  [63]

SC around for enough rows to have 11” from the brim. 

R7: [7 sc, dec]*  [56] 

SC around for enough rows to have 12.5” from the brim.

R8: [6 sc, dec]*  [49]

SC around for enough rows to have 14” from the brim. 

R9: [5 sc, dec]*  [42]

SC around for enough rows to have 15” from the brim. 

R10: [4 sc, dec]*  [35]

SC around for enough rows to have 16” from the brim. 

R11: [3 sc, dec]*  [28]

SC around for enough rows to have 17” from the brim. 

R12: [2 sc, dec]*  [21]

SC around for enough rows to have 18” from the brim. 

R13: [1 sc, dec]*  [14]

SC around for enough rows to have 19” from the brim. 

R14: [dec]*  [7]  At this the row was small enough that I skipped the slip stitch to first and chain and just started working in the round. SC around for enough rows to be happy.  

R15: dec around to close end off. Bind off. 

Use the rest of the skein to make a pom for the end and attach it.