Lining a hat: the warmest winter beanie!

Why bother lining a hat? After all, any knitted hat is probably plenty warm, right?

Usually, but not always.

Jesse requested a new winter beanie, one which was really warm, please.

I thought I’d make him a colourwork hat, as the yarn which floats behind the pattern effectively adds another layer of warmth. (Looking for hat patterns? Here’s a roundup of cabled hat patterns.) Plus, I used a merino-cashmere from Knitting for Olive. The sock-weight yarn promised to be light as well as warm.

The pattern is Fragmentation. Nice, no? I choose half a dozen patterns I’d be happy to make and let Jesse pick his favourite.

“It’s nice,” said Jesse doubtfully, when the hat was finished “…but is it warm enough?”

A double layer of merino-cashmere? Buddy, this was going to be plenty warm!

Except, he was right. It was a little chilly. Perhaps my gauge was off, perhaps he was comparing it to the tighter-knit worsted hat I was replacing but the wind whipped through the stitches.

A quick fix for cold heads is lining a hat.

It’s simple too. I choose some yarn out of my stash, and picked up stitches all the way around inside the brim. Then I knit a hat. Yup, it’s two hats in one.

I ran out of yarn at the crown, so switched to another in a similar weight.

Let’s take a look: this is the hat from the outside (I didn’t get any pics of the hat fresh of the needles, so this is two seasons of wear – stuffed in pockets, and stored tightly in a draw. This is some non-insta worthy realness):

And inside:

Ugly as sin – I didn’t bother with neat crown decreases as you can well see, but nice and cozy.

These two hats aren’t connected anywhere except at the brim. But they look – and act – like one.

So there you have it – lining a hat transformed a never-would’ve-been-worn hat into his favourite winter beanie!