A bounty of beanies! Buckets of beanies! Beanies galore! Beanies beanies beanies! Beanies! Beeeeeeeeanies…
So, I might have beanies on the freaking brain lately. I’ve been on a beanie making bendahhh! A beanie-a-thon. Makin’ some beanehhhhs! Yeah.. 
And I got my recent new man-about-the-house, Mr ‘Ed to model the newest creations. Over to you, Mr ‘Ed!
Well, hello thair! I’m Mr ‘Ed, but you can just call me Mr ‘Ed. Soooo frightfully pleased to meet you. My, but you have ze most beautiful eyes… shining with ze brightness of a thousand stars. May I buy you a drink?
Oh, sorry ’bout that. He looks like the strong silent type but actually he’s the worst sort of flirt.
OK, so the beanies… with a trip away to snowier climes coming up pretty soon I conceived the brilliant idea of knitting a new beanie for everyone in the family. Fired up with enthusiasm I immediately bought a small mountain of yarn. Madness. I did something right though in that a lot of it was that one-ply chunky yarn, the sort that is like a skinny hank of fleece, barely spun at all. I know this stuff gets a bit of a bad rap but in its defence though, it sure knits up pretty quick and does makes a lovely warm beanie. I’ve made seven beanies, seven! and I may have given myself self-induced tennis elbow now, or should that be, knitters’ elbow? but anyway, it’s done.
All beanies, apart from the blue one are knitted in the flat and then stitched up the side. Generally I prefer to knit beanies in the round but in this case I didn’t happen to have the right size needles, so in the flat it was:
I’ve written out my three, very simple patterns, and they are all available as free downloadable pdf patterns here
mid grey, black charcoal, burgundy red beanies: Baggy beanie
(aran-weight) blue beanie: Baggy beanie 2
raspberry (at top) and cream (below) cabled beanies with pom-pom: Cabled beanie
Yarns, all from Spotlight:
(raspberry, at top) Moda Vera Jester in Fuchsia, modelled with my mossy green scarf
(mid grey) Moda Vera Mawson, with my mustard cowl
(black) Moda Vera Shiver in Black, modelled with my cream infinity scarf,
(burgundy red); Moda Vera Shiver in Burgundy, with my mossy green scarf
(flecked charcoal) Heartland in Black Canyon, with my cream infinity scarf
(navy blue) Patons Inca in col 7047, with my mustard cowl
(cream) Moda Vera Jester in Cream, with my plaid scarf, which is just a hemmed piece of slightly fluffy woolly plaid
Also; here’s how I make an easy cheat’s pom-pom. Otherwise known as, the pom-pom to make when you don’t have time to make a pom-pom!
The secret is in the yarn, big thick chunky “bulky” yarn. This’ll take about five minutes, max!
So: start with something like a small book, or a stiff card, or pamphlet or something. Wind yarn around it, over and over, until a nice thickish wadge of windings has been built up.
Cut through all thicknesses, top and bottom.
Take a piece of thinner yarn, wrap it once around the middle bit and tie it in a nice, very tight knot. Wound it back around to the other side and tie another knot. Wind it around just a few more times, again; tie a knot. Super tight. No such thing as too tight.
Fluff it out, and done! Any strandy, uneven bits can be trimmed off neatly, or you can just leave it as a bit, messy, floppy thing. Which is pretty cute too, I reckon 😉
Use the tails of yarn to tie it on to the top of the beanie
Later edit: I managed to get some photos of my recipients, modelling their beanies 🙂
Aha, here in Canada we call those toques. To me, a beanie is a round cap worn by a small child, like a Jewish yarmulke. How the language differs from country to country.
they are adorable toques! I completely agree about the def. of “beanie”. Also they often have propellers on top, yes? 😉
These are great, and will be lovely for a snowy holiday. 😀
These are gorgeous! Thanks for the free patterns, I might make some day 🙂
These are wonderful. Thanks for sharing the patterns, Carolyn. I just learned to knit and I’ve made 3 from the same pattern and they were much sought after gifts!
I am just starting my Christmas Day so you must’ve finished yours, so I will just say “Happy Holidays!”
Lovely torsades!
Stellar, stellar beanies! You’re spoiling Mr. ‘Ed, love his name. Ha.
I think your luggage allowance will be full of beanies!
Have a great holiday.
Nutsy girl! This is my favorite style, all slouchy. I put on a beanie if it gets below 65 degrees…not often! Merry Christmas!
Fun! Love beanies. And pompoms!
Amazing beanies and have a great trip. Now to get myself knitting.
In Vancouver BC, we call the slouchy hat styles beanies and the less slouchy ones toques. I grew up in Oregon calling them ski caps and then lived in North Carolina where they were called toboggans.
No matter what you call them, your knitting looks great!