I’ve been making these elf hats with one of my absolute favourite looms, from Cindwood, the 1/2″ 66 peg adjustable/universal hat loom. I love it. I haven’t used sliders for increases or decreases before, but I got adventurous and I had a couple extra peg sliders in 1/2″ lying around, and it came with one, so I added a second, and made a couple hats, which I’ll show below.
First, you need an adjustable loom, it could be in any gauge depending on what you want to make and the weight of the yarn. I used a 1/2″ adjustable loom with two 2 peg sliders, one on each end. I use 48 pegs to make a youth/small-med adult hat which fits well, not too tight, not too loose. If you’re making a large hat, I’d recommend putting the sliders as far on each side as they can go. I start with a 2×2 rib stitch for 10-20 rows and the loom should have a number of pegs in a factor of 4. If you want to do a 1×1 rib, you just need a loom with an even number of pegs. Or a 3×3, 2×1, etc.
Part 1
Crochet cast on, or choose your favourite cast on, 48 pegs and join in the round. This hat is made from the brim and decreases to the top.
Make sure you have the sliders on and cast on as well.
Now, you can do as many rows as you want. My first one done was 142yd/130m of bulky 5 yarn and I decreased every 10 rows after my brim and first section. If you’re using a worsted yarn, or using 2 colours, I recommend about double that, and doing 20 rows each, for a bigger hat, or you can switch colours, as pictured.
Do the brim in a 2×2 rib stitch for 10 (or as many as you want) rounds. This is K2, P2.
After the first 10 rows, finish the first section by e-wrapping 10 rows in the round.
Decreasing
This is what your loom should look like after doing the first bit. The sliders are the white pegs at each end, as I’m not using the entire loom. They fit between the middle of the loom and are wedges, with a screw at the bottom you can unscrew and move back and forth.
For each decrease, you want to move the wedge in by one peg. So you unscrew it, push it inwards from the last wrapped pegs to the next one, and then move the loops from the pegs now outside it, onto each loop.
That’s confusing. Here are some pictures to help!
Now, each end will be decreased by 2 pegs for a total of 4. If you started with 48 pegs, you’ll have 44 left.
The rest of the pattern
Decrease 1: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 44 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 2: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 40 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 3: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 36 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 4: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 32pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 5: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 32pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 6: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 28 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 7: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 24 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 8: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 20 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 9: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 16 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Decrease 10: Decrease each side by sliding the wedge up one peg. 12 pegs remain. Knit 10 rows.
Binding/Casting off
If you want to make a pom-pom, I recommend doing a loose gather bind off: loop a needle up and through each of the last pegs and then pull together, but not too tight, and close on the inside.