Living on base in Oki is kind of like having a constant flock of storks (does that even happen?) flying overhead dropping baby-bombs. Seriously. Everyone gets pregnant over here, and those hoping to avoid adding a number to their family are just trying to find a safe bunker to hide in.
As of right now, I personally know four women who are pregnant, which is saying something, since I don't know that many people.
The result?
Baby hats. Lots and lots of baby hats.
That's right, folks, I've gotten back into my baby-hat knitting frenzy. Which is ridiculous because I still have baby hats left over from my last baby-hat craze (mostly because I never got on the ball to mail any back to the states. Oops...).
This time around, however, I'm knitting early enough to not know the gender of the babies. Which means neutral colors. SO, I went out and bought the most MONSTROUS balls of yarn you can imagine. Seriously, they're the size of watermelons. And I am determined not to let them go to waste. I might have to knit some scarves or blankets or something. Who cares that Okinawa isn't cold enough for either of those?
I gave up on crocheting hats as they never seem to come out quite as I'd like. So, I went back to my go-to of knitting the hats. I chose to use size 6 double-pointed knitting needles.
Basically, when you use double-pointed needles, you knit around in a circle and never have to purl. Aka, you only have to know how to do one stitch and be able to do it to one stitch or two stitches at a time (aka, when you knit two stitches together).
My basic pattern is one that I learned in 4th grade. Cast on 60 stitches (that's 20 stitches each on three needles). Knit about 3" normally. The edges will curl up automatically on their own (woohoo!). This is the best time to add in different patterns and such. Once you start having patterns added when you're decreasing, you start running into more complicated stuff. I... avoid complicated stuff as much as possible.
After knitting at least 3" (hey, the baby's gotta have enough space in the hat for it's head, right?), then you'll start decreasing. I generally start by knitting 10, then knitting two together. Now, pay attention to when you've finished a row, because you want to start over counting when you hit a new row. That way, you'll have defined 'seams' where you decrease, which looks cleaner and more well-done.
When you've gotten to the point where you've done a whole row knitting two together one after the other (ie, knit two together, knit two together, etc), it's time to finish off. Knit two together and then put that new stitch back on the original needle. Finish the row like that, ending with only one stitch remaining. Snip your yarn and pull it through that last stitch et voila! You're done.
Ta da!
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