Knit Football Beanie Free Pattern

Watch football for any length of time, and you’ll see this very hat being sported on the sidelines… Or the non-knitter’s version at least! And even though football's over for the year, winter certainly isn't!
These hats, topped with a pom-pom, are very popular among players and fans alike. You can knit it using your high school, college, or favorite national team’s colors; or just play with color however you like.
This pattern includes instructions on how to make a sideline beanie of your very own. The stripe pattern is the exact same sequence as you would find on the ones you see on TV. Also included are directions to make the pom-pom, and a little knit-as-you-go trick to create a neat, tidy, folded hem on the brim without sewing.
This hat is knit in the round, with a special reverse stockinette brim, but there’s not a single purl stitch required. You will need 3 colors of lace weight yarn, but don’t worry, it’s thick, warm, and knits up quickly using the technique in the pattern.
You can also check out the Ravelry page for this pattern if you would like a free PDF download!

Ok, without further ado, here's the pattern!

Knit Football Sideline Beanie

Materials:

♦ 50g each of three colors of lace weight yarn (I used one natural colored 100g skein, divided it into three 33g skeins, dyed two of them, and it was enough to finish the hat. However, if you don’t dye, 50g skeins are much easier to find than 33g skeins! Just know that you’ll have plenty left over.)

♦ Size 1.5 (2.5 mm) 16 inch circular needles

♦ Stitch marker

Notes:

♦ Regarding the ever-so-popular football beanies, I noticed that most of them use two colors (the team colors), and white. I used green for color A, yellow for color B, and white for color C.

♦ If you print out this pattern, you can use the boxes next to the instructions to check off your progress.

♦ Throughout the entire pattern, you’ll be holding two strands of lace weight yarn together. This will give you the ability to get the marled look in certain stripes of the hat. However, in order to hold yarn double in the solid stripes, you will need center pull balls in order to pull from both ends.

♦ The beginning 11 rounds will be folded behind and tacked down on the reverse stockinette side after the body of the hat is finished. This gives a nice, firm, smooth edge to the brim. To avoid sewing, you can do this: 

At the beginning of the 11th round, fold the knitting in half behind to meet the tips of your needles. Use your right needle tip to pick up one of the strands from the cast on, directly below (10 rows below) the stitch you’re about to knit. Pop this strand onto your left needle, and knit it together with your next stitch. Do this all the way around, picking up cast on loops corresponding with your current stitch, and knitting them into your current row.

Gauge:

♦ 32 stitches and 48 rows per four inches.

Pattern:

□ Cast on 150 using colors A and C held together, place marker, join to knit in the round.

□ Colors A and C: 11 rounds (tack down using notes above at 11^th round if not sewing)

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Color B doubled: 15 rounds

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Colors A and C: 7 rounds

If you don’t wish to follow my color pattern, this is a total of 39 rounds for the fold-over brim section. Feel free to play with these rounds, and their colors, as you like!

Now you’re going to turn your work as if you’re knitting flat (instead of knitting clockwise normally)  and knit the round in the “wrong” direction (counterclockwise). When you get back to the beginning of the round, continue knitting in the new established direction. This will give you a stockinette section and a reverse stockinette section without purling. Continue in this direction for the rest of the hat.

□ Colors A and C: 4 rounds

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Color B doubled: 15 rounds

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Colors A and C: 3 rounds

□ Color B doubled: 5 rounds

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Color C doubled: 20 rounds

□ Color B doubled:  7 rounds

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Colors A and C: 10 rounds

Total of 76 rows in the main body of the hat.

Change to color C doubled before starting the decreases.

At this point, we start the decreases. While working the decrease pattern, you are going to be working a stripe pattern just like the one you’ve been following. The decrease pattern is as follows:

Round 1: *Knit 23, k2tog*around.

Round 2: Knit around.

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 for the remainder of the hat.

While working this decrease pattern, follow the stripe pattern below:

□ Color C doubled: 15 rounds

□ Color A doubled: 3 rounds

□ Color B doubled: 24 rounds

Total of 42 rounds for the decrease section.

Finishing:

Break yarn, thread the end through the remaining stitches and tighten. Weave in ends.

Pom-pom (optional): If desired, you can make a pom-pom for the top of your hat. To do this, you can use a pom-pom maker, or do it the old fashioned way. In order to do it without a pom-pom maker, wrap colors A and B held together around a 4-inch square of cardboard loosely. The more you wrap, the fluffier your pop-pom. Once you have your desired thickness, carefully slide the bundle off the cardboard, taking care to keep it from falling apart. Now double knot a 12-inch length of yarn (doubled, so it doesn’t snap when you tighten the knot) around the center of your bundle, creating loops on either side. Use your scissors to snip all of these loops. You can use your 12-inch length of yarn to attach your pom-pom to your hat later, so don’t cut these ends short. Fluff your pom-pom and give it a “haircut” to make it nice and round and uniform. Use the ends from earlier to attach your pom-pom to your hat.

I hope you enjoy this pattern, and let me know if you have any questions!

Until next week,

Grace