Chessboard Hat

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You're probably wondering why I call this a chessboard hat when everybody under the sun would look at the squares and think checkerboard. I just had to be different. :-)

I was still in a 2-color knitting phase after knitting the Oblique Hat, enjoying getting more comfortable with working with yarn in both my hands, so decided to do something different in my next 2-color hat. This one was inspired by something I saw in a Vogue Stitchionary. The pattern is pretty easy to work, so I consider it "mindless knitting". It's easy to work while watching TV (which is when I did most of the knitting for this hat). You can easily work it without the use of a row counter; you just need to pay a little attention to the colors and remember where to switch colors. My hat above is a bit on the long side, as I wasn't paying attention and just continued around and around a little longer than I had intended before starting the increase, a side effect of watching tv while knitting. This is chemo hat #17 for Cap Karma this winter.

This is a great pattern for using all those little bits of leftover yarn. The minimum amount you would need for a square section is just enough yarn to work 4 rounds, and that's pretty easy requirement to meet! The possibilities are endless. You can change Main Color and/or Contrasting Color however you like, however I suggest you do it on Rounds 1 or 5 if you want to maintain the 4x4 square patterns.

Stitches used in this hat include:The 4-stitch by 4-stitch square checkerboard pattern was inspired from something in VS3, will need to look up the page number
Knit-Two Purl-Two Ribbing BW1 pg 39

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Chessboard Hat pattern can be downloaded from Chessboard Hat pattern on box.com (no registration required).

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