I love pumpkin hats!

Every year my knitting group makes pumpkin hats for October babies at Duke Hospital, and I never get tired of making them.

How stinkin' cute are these hats?! I'm not really a "baby person," but I want to knit every baby in the world a pumpkin hat.

I knit two hats this week, using up all the orange yarn in my stash -- yay, stash busting! -- and then I bought some more -- stash-busting fail. But this is okay because it's technically not going into my stash because I will just knit more pumpkins.

Here's the pattern I use:

Newborn Pumpkin Hats

Needle Size: 8 US
Yarn Weight: Worsted (orange for the main part of the hat and green for the “stem”)

CO 64 with orange yarn and join to work in the round.
Knit 2 x 2 rib (k2, p2) for 2.5 inches.
Knit around (stockinette stitch) for 2.5 inches.

(Hat will be 5 inches total from cast on before beginning decreases.)

Decrease for crown:
R1: {k6, k2tog}; repeat around
R2: {k5, k2tog}; repeat around
R3: {k4, k2tog}; repeat around
(switch to green yarn)
R4: {k3, k2tog}; repeat around
R5: {k2, k2tog}; repeat around
R6: {k1, k2tog}; repeat around
R7: {k2tog}; repeat around

Stem (8 stitches):
Knit 4 rounds and bind off.