program change

I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled knitting for something special - little woolly hats. A fruit drink company in Ireland is soliciting these little hats for their 250ml bottles; for every behatted bottle sold they'll donate 25¢ to Age Action to help seniors at risk cover their heating bills over the winter. Every year in Ireland about 2000 seniors die from cold related conditions. Remember how bad last winter was over there?

The little hats are adorable and fun to make. Not to mention, this is a great way to use up the scraps of Cashmerino DK in my stash! Each hat takes about 3 grams of yarn and each pompom takes another 4 grams. Although the fruit drink company has published patterns on their website, I've come up with my own. Finished hats must be 5-7 cm wide when laid flat and at least 3-4 cm tall, not including the pompom.

With 2.5mm dpns, cast on 32 stitches and join to work in the round.
Round 1: knit all stitches
Rounds 2 & 3: purl all stitches
Rounds 4 to 14: knit all stitches
Round 15: *knit 6, k2tog*, repeat to end of round (28 stitches remain)
Round 16: *k2tog*, repeat to end of round (14 stitches remain)
Round 17: *k2tog*, repeat to end of round (7 stitches remain)
Cut working yarn, thread yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight to close opening.
Make 1-1/2" pompom, attach and weave in ends.