Quite a few of my patterns come from my husband wanting something that doesn’t exist or challenges me in some way. This time, it is about The Big Lebowski and a “Dude hat.” On a separate note, we are working on finding a rug that really brings the room together.
As with most of my designs, they start on graph paper and move to Excel (because I’m a nerd). We design them together through multiple iterations until we get the best repeat and ability to make multiple sizes. In the picture below, you can see how many ideas we had to create the final version of the pattern. It was quite fun! This pattern has four sizes, so that ANYONE can be The Dude, His Dudeness, Duder, or El-Duderino – if you aren’t into the whole brevity thing.
As I was testing the pattern out, it was kind of hard to find the right colors. I ended up using my favorite stranding yarn – Cascade 220 Superwash. They have a TON of colors, and I was able to find the right ones to match the original sweater - #1915, #297, and #819. I also made the hat in alternate colors that Pendleton has the sweater in, to see what it would look like. It turned out great and became someone’s holiday present while I continued to make the different sizes.
Traits of the Hat
Brim:
As with all hats that I make, if I am starting from the bottom up I use the Totally Tubular Cast-on by Knitty so that the brim doesn’t get stretched over time. I have found that using needles 2 sizes bigger than I am using for the ribbing helps the cast-on become too tight, then once I have my K1P1 in place, I switch to my smaller needles for the ribbing. Once the ribbing is done in the smaller needles, I knit around switching to the size for stranded knitting. Therefore, I use two needle sizes for brims before getting to the hat, but it is totally worth it!
Hat:
I love doing fair isle because it is addictive… just one more row, then I will see what it looks like!
The interesting thing about this pattern is how the contrasting color is more sporadic and spread out, so getting good at floats is key to this pattern. There is a lot of carrying the color through. In addition, I don’t like to weave in ends, so I just twist my yarn along the whole hat to keep things nice and neat.
The different sizes do vary a little in the pattern of the main part of the hat, but if you wanted to mix-and-match a little that is up to you. I have recommended charts for each size to fit heads approximately 14-24 inches.
Overall, I hope that you enjoy making this hat as much as I did (along with my cat Frederick Enrique), and you can be the best Dude that you can be. You can get the pattern here on my Payhip or Ravelry.
Happy knitting, and above all else, be kind to each other. 😊
Comments ()