An Easy Ribbed Stocking Hat for Harrison - a year of handmade gift

I recently received a blog comment about how hard it is to come up with handmade gift ideas for men. Here is one! My first gift for a year of handmade is for a man (well, almost). This crimson hat, though modeled by my hubby, is for my step-brother who just turned 18 and just got in to Harvard!  Go Harrison! I'm so proud of him and thrilled that he can relax for the rest of his senior year. His birthday comes right after Christmas, so its always a scramble to give something to him. As soon as I heard he was heading up to Boston this fall, I knew he needed a Crimson winter hat. He lives in Atlanta now, so he has no idea what he's in for.  brrrrr!

This is a fabulous beginning knitters' project. It is super fast and not that technical.  The pattern consists of knitting and purling in a ribbed pattern until you get to the last row where you knit two stitches together, purl two stitches together around the rib pattern.  Then, you cinch it up and seam the edges together and you're done.  It is also great for experienced knitters as you can whip one out for a last minute gift super easily! You can get a pdf of this free pattern here (this comes up at low resolution in google viewer - click on printer icon in upper left hand corner for high res viewing) or on Ravelry here.

The best thing about this hat is that the sizing is really forgiving.  The hat that fit my hubby's huge noggin above, fit me comfortably.  It was a tad roomy, but it fit.  I almost didn't want to send it to Harrison it was so cozy!

You can get the pdf of the free pattern here (this comes up at low resolution in google viewer - click on printer icon in upper left hand corner for high res viewing) or on Ravelry here.

If you want to see all the handmade gifts I've made this year, check out a year of handmade gallery here.

And, don't forget! if you make the hat or any other great handmade gift this year, upload it here so we can all see it!