Easy Droplet Knit Beanie Free Pattern and Tutorial Workshop ~ Beginner Friendly All Ages Knit Beanie

Hey everybody, it's Deja with Knit and Crochet for After.com and today we are making this droplet beanie. So this beanie is a super easy, And it can be made in any size because the multiple is so small. fast working So we can make this in any size we want and to prove it, knit beanie. I'm going to make a matching beanie for my cat. I'm going to make a little tiny kitty beanie while I show you the stitches for my kitty. We're gonna just have fun with this. So download the pattern in the link below. We'll start talking about the materials and get started. So the materials you're going to need for this project are a number five bulky yarn in about 200 yards, enough to add that pom-pom, and a long brim if you want, otherwise a little less. You're gonna need six millimeter 16 inch Circulars. I'm going to show you how to use 6mm 32 inch circulars with the magic loop for a smaller beanie. You're also going to need a stitch marker for marking the beginning of your round, a gauge checker which is super important if you want the beanie to fit right, a yarn needle, and finally a pom pom maker. Unless you make your own. Then you can use cardboard or whatever you want. But I'll talk about making that pom-pom and what I like to use near the end. Once you've gotten all your supplies together, we're going to get started. I'm going to show you first how to cast on and work this brim. And then we're going to talk about gauge. So let's get started with our cast on and brim. Okay, so before we get started with the cast on, we want to talk about checking this gauge first because this is what's going to make sure the beanie fits you. We need to know how many stitches per inch we need to cast on so that the beanie isn't too loose or too tight. This pattern is great because it's only four stitches, it's a four stitch repeat, so you Do multiples of four for whatever size you need. So I'm using the Susan Bates Knit Check. I love this thing with this window here, it makes it very easy to read my gauge. A link is in the description for this if you want to go check one out. But I've laid it down. I've laid it down along one of my V's of my ribbing. So this is a two by two. It's two knits and two purls. So I have to remember that when I'm counting. The rows are nice and easy to count because I just go right to the bottom of a V and I count up. So let's look at Each V is one. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. So we have ten rows to two inches. The row height is kind of important, but you know, depending on your brim, if you know what size brim you want, this is gonna help. Just ten rows of this two by two will get you two inches of brim. So that's how that's going to work. So for every inch you're going to have five rows. So depending on how wide you want that brim, I did 20 rows for mine, so that's four inch brim. Now I'm going to do my stitches across. This is a two by two knit, so I have to remember there's two rows of knit or two Stitches of knit, two stitches of purl, two, this kind of looking down here kind of helps me to see them. So I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So I have eight stitches across for two inches, which gives me 16 for four inches if you want to do that math. But that tells me I'm at four stitches per inch, so this makes it super easy to figure out what size I need. I'm going to be making the kitty beanie and I'm going to make it a 10 inch circumference, so I'm going to need 40 stitches to cast on because one inch is four stitches. Some important things to remember when you're doing your gauge, you need to do it in pattern, So you need to do the two by two. Do it in the round, and if you can, you know, some people like to just rush through and get going, that's up to you, but if you really want a successful project, do it in the round and bind off, because your stitches on the needle will read different than laying flat. So those are my tips. Now we know four stitches to an inch, and you can make your circumference whatever size You can make it any size you want by taking your inch, Inches around your head and times it by four and that's how many stitches you're gonna cast on. So let's go cast on and start this beanie. So to get started we are doing the magic loop. So as I said before get if you're not gonna be if you're gonna make a wide variety of things get a 32 to 40 inch fixed circular or interchangeables whichever and you'll be able to use this long Needle or this long cord for many different projects, but we're gonna use it for the magic loop right now if you're gonna make tons of beanies, I say get a 16 inch fixed circular that's gonna make most size beanies that you need But this really works for any size circumference and since I'm doing a small circumference for my cat I'm only doing a 10 inch circumference. So I already casted on 40 stitches cast on your favorite method Whatever you like. To begin the magic loop, we need to count half of our stitches. So 20 for me, half for you, whatever you're doing. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. So I'm going to pull all of my stitches to my cable. And I've got my 20 mapped out. So I'm going to kind of just bend and pull my cable so I have half of my stitches on one side. And half on the other, so I'm going to kind of hold on to them while I pull my needles through so that all my stitches are on my needles. That's just to kind of help you get situated and get ready to begin working in the round. I've got them all facing in so that I know that they are not twisted. I can also kind of push them down if I want. That works just as well. You'll see my loop is all on one side and my needles are facing to the right. We're going to grab our working yarn and it's going to connect our kind of V that we have into a circle. So the working yarn is in the on the needle. Further away from me and the stitches that I need to work into first are closer to me. So We have this long loop. What are we going to do? We're going to grab Our working yarn and we can just kind of do our tension right now Take the needle with the working yarn and pull it out pull it long enough That you can come around and start working into these stitches. You'll notice I still have a loop over here That's part of the magic loop we have loops on both sides so we have plenty of room to work our stitches for any size circle we want so if you're using this for a 20 inch beanie it's going to be the same thing it's just your loops are going to be a little bit smaller so let's connect this round and begin our instruction so we're doing a two by two rib so our first stitch is going to be a knit so i'm going to insert my needle grab my yarn from the back and bring it through I always kind of give it a tug when I'm working in the round to close that gap as much as possible and then continue on. So I'm doing another knit, now I'm going to do two purls, and you'll see how this works once we get to the end of this needle. So the rest of the stitches are just kind of sitting back here on the cable. Doing another two knits, two purls, two knits. You can really do any cast on you want. This is the long tail. For the bigger beanie, I did a crochet cast on. You can do cable, you know, a ribbed cast on. I have lots of tutorials on different cast ons, so feel free to try a bunch. The long tail is just good old-fashioned, you know, go-to. So I've finished that half of my round. Notice I don't have a stitch marker. I don't really need one because I have a tail. When I finish this round, this tail is going to be my marker saying you finished and now you're ready for the next round. So I just need to keep track of my rounds And that's about it. So now I need to work this side so how I'm going to do that is I'm going to kind of drop that needle that I was working with. I'm going to kind of grab onto these stitches just so they don't go anywhere and I'm going to grab my cable and pull my needle so that it gets to my stitches and then I'm going to flip it back facing right again. You'll notice my working yarn is again away from me. And the stitches that I need to work into are facing me. So again, grab, you can just kind of lay it over and do your tension, pull out your back needle and begin your stitches. Since we're working in multiples of four, you should have ended with two purls. So you can just go right into your knit two, purl two. And then we're going to go ahead and just do the knit two, purl two around. And we're going to make as many. rounds of the brim that you want. So I did 20 for the actual beanie but I'm going to do much less for my kitty beanie. So you're going to choose how many you want to do. Remember it's five rounds per inch so if you want a folding beanie I would do at least two to three inches minimum but up to four if you want that really wide beanie so that would be that 20 rounds. So So get going. On that, we'll meet up to begin the body of the beanie after you finish your brim. I've gotten through the brim portion of the beanie. Now it's time for the droplets. This is the fun. Interesting part, they kind of appear out of nowhere with this special drop stitch that we're going to do, but I'm going to show you two different ways that you can do it so you pick whichever way you like best, and it really works up fast, so let's go get it done. Okay, so now we are going to begin the actual droplets. So the very first thing that we're actually going to do is do Six rounds of just knit stitch so this is kind of the setup to create the kind of drop puff stitch so just like we were working our brim we're going to pull our needle out and we're just going to do knit stitches so no no purls this time so you can Change color now in the very first row of droplets or the very first round of droplets will be a different color or you can stay in the brim color and have that first row gray. I'm keeping it gray so you're just going to keep doing rounds of knit stitch until you get six done and then we'll come back and actually make our droplets. Okay, I've done my six rounds of knit stitch, and now I want the mint to start coming in. So what I did was I kind of pulled enough for a tail, and then I started winding the yarn from the ball, and you can kind of see where it's darker and it starts getting lighter. And right about here, I'm going to start getting into the mint. And so I'm going to, and I might work this back a little bit more, actually. So I'm gonna cut this portion of my yarn out because once I start working in this mint I don't need this big ball of yarn hanging around. So I'm going to leave a long enough tail to weave in and then I'm going to cut this end so that I can actually join it and I'm going to save this for my pom-pom so I can use this during the pom-pom stage and Then we're ready to join and begin our first droplet bubble bowl kind of that we have. So these are going to be offset so this one and then after another six rounds of knit we're going to do an offset bottle bubble so we need to make sure that we're keeping track of what we're doing so mark it down but for this first one we're gonna do our normal thing where we switch over and i'm gonna go ahead and join in this new yarn right away if you're making stripes this is where you're going to join a new color at the beginning of this row so this is kind of It's kind of row seven, if we're not counting our brim. And you'll notice I just did a knit stitch. So the next stitch is just going to be a knit stitch as well and then we're going to begin our pattern repeat. So what we're going to do is a KB4 which is knit below four. There's two ways that you can do it so I'm going to show you the way that I don't like first. So to do that I'm going to pull my stitch off and I'm actually going to kind of pull it apart So I'm going to pull down to the fourth row below. So I'm going to pull one out. I still have my stitch here. I'll pull another one out. Two. Pull out three. So I have three ladders that I've just yanked out. Then I'm going to grab that loop for the fourth and put it on my needle. And then I'm going to knit it off. That's going to create that bobble. So you'll have three ladders, three stitches dropped. Work into that fourth row. Then I'm going to knit 3, because this is a 4-stitch pattern repeat, I'll knit 3 between each of these knit 4 belows. So again, let me show you the one I don't like. Pull that off. This might work better for you, you might like this one. I don't like the risk of dropping too many stitches because you're pulling out Three stitches. You're grabbing the stitch on the fourth, putting it back on your left hand needle, and then knitting it off. Now let me show you what I like. So let me do another three knit stitches. This one is the way that I do all of mine. So instead I count my stitches. I go one, two, three, four. So I'm going to stick my needle in that fourth hole. So again, Each hole is a stitch. One, two, three, four. Then I'm going to just knit. So I'm going to grab my yarn and bring it through that hole and pull my stitch off. And then I just kind of work those ladders off. And I have the same three ladders. And you don't even really need to sit there and fiddle with them, because as you're working around, they'll start working themselves out. So you can just go on, 1, 2, 3, the hardest part is counting your holes, and I just kind of pull them apart so that I can see them easier, and I go 1, 2, 3, 4, do the knit stitch, pull that off, just leave it alone. Go on to the next one, three. One, two, three, four. Now we have one more stitch here, so make sure that you're keeping track of what you are doing when you're switching to the other side if you're on that magic loop. So I need to do two more, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and the less sticky yarn you have, the easier it is. If you have some wool yarn, you're probably going to have to sit there and kind of pick One too many off there. So if you have wool, you might have to sit there and kind of pick the back side and get those. Ladders apart, but as you're working your stitches, they undo themselves, and when you're like kind of pulling on your work as you're working it, it all works out in the end, or you can just wait till the end and then kind of pick the rest of them apart, whatever doesn't come apart, but it really doesn't, it's a lot faster, a lot easier, you don't risk losing any stitches, you just have to make sure that you're counting the right amount so you're not making your bobbles in the wrong round. So here I am at the end. I have three. So I knitted three. I have two stitches left. You'll see in the pattern repeat that I'm going to do one more knit below. One, two, three, four. And then a knit in that very last stitch, which is super loose. Me cutting it. Pull on those and stick them to the side. That creates your bobbles. And then We're going to do another six rows. Tangled up here, another six rows of knit, and then we're going to do the offset, which is just changing the position of that same stitch we just did. So we're going to do another six, come back and I'll show you the offset, and then you can get going on the rest of the beanie, and then we won't have to meet up till the crown. So do another six and I'll see you in a bit. So we've got another six rounds done, you can see how our droplets are starting to pop Pop out now. We're going to do the offset this time so at the beginning of our round we're going to pull out our needle and we're going to begin with a knit four below this time so just kind of be careful you don't lose that stitch before you want to and kind of pull it out if you need to find or just kind of look for each of the little v's and reach into that fourth one pull that through and slide off And then we're going to knit three. So that's the pattern repeat for this one. This one's a little bit easier. Just that first knit four below can be a little bit tricky because you don't want to lose it. So you just continue that all the way around. And you'll finish off this set of droplets. And then you're going to do another six rounds of... Knit stitch. So this is like a really fast working project because it's mostly knit stitch. You just have that knit four below every seventh round and it's, you know, every fourth stitch. So it's really fast work. Remember this is the row where you would change the color for the new droplet. So as you can see, kind of where we started here with the knit four below in that mint, that gray of the six rows is that first set of droplets. It's up to you where and what colors you're using, but if you want kind of those striped drops then you're going to do it during this row. So continue on, we're going to alternate the droplets, each seven rows, and then we'll And we'll come back. Right at the top before the crown instructions. All right, we finished the last row of the droplets. Now we are going to do the easiest ever crown. This is one of my favorite ways to finish off and it's so fast and easy. It's two rounds and you're done. Then you can get this pom-pom going. So let's go close this off and then we'll talk about pom-poms some more. Okay, I'm back. I have finished my droplet section. Yours is probably going to be much larger than mine unless you're making a cat beanie. I did four droplets. This one's not quite poofing out yet because it doesn't have anything really tugging on it. I also rejoined, so that part that I pulled out between this and this, I rejoined it on that last row so that I can get kind of back to the gray before I add the pom-pom. So we're going to do our decreasing crown rows now with rounds, which are really simple because there's only two of them. We decrease super fast. So for the decreasing, just like how we started the rest of our rounds, we're going to pull out that needle that has our working yarn and we're going to do just knit twos together. So every single stitch you come to, or every group of two, you're going to knit two together And it's going to decrease this crown super fast. Work off two at a time on one side and then switch over to the other side. So you're going to continue the knit two togethers all the way around this round and then one more round and then we'll come back and close off the hole in the beanie so that we can get the pom-pom on. Okay I did my two rounds of knit two together and I'm down to 10 stitches. You'll be probably more than me but we're going to do everything the same way. So I've already cut my tail and Put it on a yarn needle. And we're going to work in the same round that we just did. So I finished on this stitch back here. So now I'm just going to insert my needle through each stitch and pull it off of my other needle. Sliding as I go. I can take off a couple if I want. Whatever is easiest for you. I'm not pulling it super tight yet. Just so I can see what I'm doing here with that needle. Now I'm going to pull this over here so that I can get into this side easily. I am off the needles, rid of those. Now I'm gonna take that yarn and I'm gonna start pulling snug. This is where I started my round, so that's why it looks huge, don't worry. It's just the tails. I pull on those, that'll close down. It's gone. So, and you'll see that my last bubble, my last droplet popped out, because now it's kind of got something to anchor onto and it's showing its shape now. So that's what I wanted. You'll see if I pull I'm closing my hole off. I like to run it around, if I get it in the camera, I like to run it around again. I usually end up doing it like a few times, especially if I'm going to be using like a pom-pom to cover it. It may be very ugly on top because I am always I've always, um... paranoid that it's going to open up over time, so I sit there and I just stitch back and forth All right, so I think that's good. I'm gonna bring this through, and then I'm gonna weave in all these ends before I put on my pom-poms. I've got a few ends to weave in because of those color changes. So I'm gonna get those done, and then we'll come back and make the pom-pom. The inside looks cool, doesn't it? It's kind of like a honeycomb on the inside. Just thought I'd point that out real quick. I'll see you in a minute. Your bead is done, you're ready for your pom-pom. I wanted to show you this. This is the Clover pom-pom maker that I'm about to show you how to make these pom-poms. This guy is the I'm going to do like extra large, a 3 inch. I'm going to do a smaller one. It looks really weird and intimidating, but once you know how to use it, it's super simple. I highly recommend these. The link is down below, so you can go get one if you want. Otherwise, you can do... I'm going to show you kind of the cardboard trick. There's lots of tutorials out there on making your own pom-poms, so I'm not going to bore you with a million different ways. I'm going to show you my favorite way, and you pick what you want to do. So let's go make our pom-poms. Okay, I've got the beanie with the ends all woven in. I've got enough to do a little bit of a brim. This is cute. I'm throwing the pom pom on it now. So I have my clover pom pom maker. I have a link in the description below. I've already done one side because it you do take a little bit of time to wrap it. So I'm going to show you how we make it. So this this whole thing it pulls apart and you'll see when I make it how that works. But there's two sides that you open up. And you wind the yarn around both sides at the same time. So I have a little bit of my gray, so I'm going to grab hold of the end, and I'm going to start winding it around. And pay attention to your edges, get good over there. You kind of want to make sure that you're doing the same amount on both sides, so you've got to kind of pay attention to as you're getting, you know, how big your little poof's getting. You're just gonna keep winding this around and around. So we're gonna get this wound up and then I'm gonna show you what we do with it. Okay, so I can't go too fat here because there's a little bar that this sits on. So if I do it too fat right in the middle, it's not gonna close all the way. But this looks pretty good. It looks pretty even-ish. So then what I do is I close my little thing off and then I put the yarn. Now here's the scariest part because there's nothing holding these pieces of yarn together and I'm about to cut right through them so hold your thing tight together and make sure that these don't pop open on you so kind of hold on to those as you're cutting. So I usually grab the end because they're opposite ends so I'll grab the end that I'm cutting the opposite side Get super sharp scissors because you got to get through a lot of yarn and start cutting right down that center where those two pieces, the two green, the limey green pieces meet. We're just cutting through all of that yarn, making our pom-pom goodness. That side's done. So, see how it kind of pops open a little bit? So you don't want that to pop all the way open, it's pretty tight in there, so it's not like it's just gonna fall open, you can see like me holding it like this, nothing pops open on its own. But just to make sure that you don't end up causing any problems, I think I need some new scissors. My sharp scissors are not as sharp as they were. Alright, do this sucker, then finish this guy off. Cut my finger. Now, what do we do? Don't open it. You need a length of yarn. If you are using a yarn that breaks easily, like wool, don't use it. Get some dental floss or something, because once you go to tighten this and tie it off, It's probably going to break. I'm not sure this one might break. We'll see how it goes. So you're going to tie a knot and pull it kind of tight because it's going inside here to secure your pom pom. And this is actually working good so this isn't going to break on me. Do the square knot so your stuff will come undone. I'm always paranoid of stuff coming undone. Once you get that you can do a third knot if you want, whatever you want. Now we're gonna open it and see what we got. So we take our ends and pop it up. Take the other end, pop it up. Then we grab the centers and pull them apart. So now you can see how that works with it going together. Super cool tool. And now we have a pom-pom. Still needs a little bit of a haircut. So I'm gonna zhuzh it up a little bit and... I'm going to attach it to my beanie so I just get like a crochet hook and I pop through the top and then I just tie it inside so in case you were wondering how to attach your pom-pom. So I'm going to get that and then we'll look at the finished one in just a second. I've got my ridiculously large pom-pom for the beanie but I just feel like that's going to look really funny and cute. So I can kind of squish it down on the kitty's head. So that is on there. I'm going to go give you a little show. with the cat but you can see that but hopefully you enjoyed that um let's go check out how it looks on the cat all right here we are with the matching beanies as you can see she's not hating it quite stylish i'm taking that i have to put little ear holes in it next time but i hope you I hope you guys like this project. I hope you enjoy the video and thank you for watching. If you haven't joined yet, I did just release a new exclusive pattern for the cashmere level patrons, so if you haven't checked it out before, go check out the tiers, they're very reasonable, they help support me making all of these. I really appreciate everybody that goes and does that extra step by joining Patreon and supporting me, so new pattern, go check it out, it's a crochet market bag, very cute, so tell me what you think about it. Over in Patreon. Thank you all for watching.