Free Easy Knit Beanie Hat Pattern for Straight Needles (8 Sizes: Baby to XL)

This free hat knitting pattern is quick and easy and comes in 8 sizes. So you can knit matching hats for all the family!

It’s knit as a flat piece with straight knitting needles, and then seamed down the back to make a hat.

A nice practical project for beginner knitters who have got the hang of knit and purl stitches, this hat pattern is mainly just basic stockinette stitch. There’s some rib stitch at the start for a good fit & simple k2tog decreases to shape the crown.

Want to knit a hat in the round that you can try on as you knit it with no fiddly seaming at the end? Try the circular needle version of this easy beanie pattern. Scared of circulars? See how easy it is with my circular knitting video tutorials.

What You Need

• 45m (newborn) – 150m (XL fitted) or 170m (XL slouch) approx of worsted or aran weight yarn
  (1 small 50g ball of baby sizes, or 2 for child-adult)
  
• 5mm (us size 8) knitting needles. If your yarn recommends a different size knitting needle, you can use that instead.
  
• Tapestry needle for seaming

Sizing & Notes

• Standard aran gauge of 18 stitches and 24 rounds to 4 inches (10 cm) is suggested. But exact gauge is not important (especially vertical row gauge) as the hat is quite stretchy. The hat is your swatch, there’s no need for test squares!
• The pattern includes options for a fitted (A), slouchy (B) and cuffed beanie (C) (where you turn the ribbing up).

Yarns I Used

Here are the yarn amounts & finished sizes (post wash) for the sample hats shown as a guide. It’s fine for your measurements to vary a bit depending on your yarn choice and gauge:

• Newborn hat (size 1): 45m/49yds Drops Nepal aran/heavy worsted yarn in shade dandelion (yellow), measures 6.5 inches wide by 5 inches tall.
• Child hat (size 5): 93m/102yds Rico Essentials Soft Merino Aran (lighter aran) in shade azalea (pink) measures .
• Adult hat (size 7): 120m/131yds of Rico Design essentials soft merino yarn (lighter aran) in shade 71 violet (pale purple) measures 9.75 inches wide by 9 inches tall.

New for 2025: Check out my free ribbed hat pattern in DK yarn for another easy knit hat project

Abbreviations

• k2tog: knit 2 stitches together (decrease 1 stitch)
• kx: knit next x stitches
• px: purl next x stitches
• () x n times: repeat the instructions inside () n times
• [1,2,3,4] [5,6] [7,8]: instructions for each size with baby, youth & adult sizes grouped in [] for clarity.
  NB [-] means instruction does not apply for that size.

Easy Beanie Hat Knitting Pattern for Straight Needles

Cast On

Cast on [58 newborn, 66 3-6 mths, 74 6-12 mths, 78 toddler] [82 child, 86 teen] [90 adult, 98 XL] stitches.

I used the long tail cast on (tutorial here), which is quite stretchy and works well for rib, but you can use whichever cast on you like best.

Knit Brim in Rib Stitch

Row 1: Knit 1 stitch, purl 1 stitch and repeat this pattern to the end of the row to do k1p1 ribbing.

Note: with the long tail cast on, row 1 is the wrong side of your knitting. If you use a different cast on where row 1 is the right side, knit an even number of rib rows instead of odd, so that you knit the last rib row on the wrong side.

Knit [5,5,7,7] of rib for baby sizes or 9 rows for child size or larger, or your desired ribbing height (any odd number of rows).

Folded cuff beanie (Option C) only: do [7,7,10,10] rows of rib for baby sizes or 13-17 rib rows for larger sizes for a deeper brim.

Finish your ribbing after a wrong side row.

Knit Stockinette until Desired Height

Once you are happy with the height of your ribbing, switch to knitting stockinette stitch as follows:
Next row and every right side row: knit every stitch
Wrong side rows: purl every stitch

Fitted beanie (option A): knit until your piece is [3, 4, 3.75, 5] [5, 6.25] [6, 6.75] inches including rib.

Slouchy beanie (option B): knit until your piece is [3.75, 4.75, 4.75, 6] [6, 7.75] [7.5, 8.25] inches including rib, or longer for more slouch.

Cuffed beanie (option C): knit [3, 4, 3.75, 5] [5, 6.25] [6, 6.75] inches of stockinette for a fitted hat or [3.75, 4.75, 4.75, 6] [6, 7.75] [7.5, 8.25] inches for a slouchy hat (or longer for extra slouch). 

End with a wrong side row.

1st Decreases: Size 6-12 months Upwards Only

K2, (K2tog, K[-,-,16,17] [18,19] [20,21]) x 4 times to decrease 4 stitches evenly around – [58,66,70,74] [78,82] [86,94] stitches
Do 3 rows of stockinette as follows: purl 1 row, knit 1 row, purl 1 row.

2nd Decreases: Sizes 6-12 mths, Child, Adult & XL Only

K2, (K2tog, K[-,-,15,-],[17,-],[19,20]) x 4 times to decrease another 4 stitches – [58,66,66,74] [74,82] [82,90] stitches
Do 3 more rows of stockinette as per 1st decreases.

Main Crown Decreases: All Sizes

K2, (K2tog, K6) x [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] times to decrease [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] stitches evenly around – [51,58,58,65] [65,72] [72,79] stitches
Purl 1 row
K2, (K2tog, K5) x [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] times – [44,50,50,56] [56,62] [62,68] stitches
Purl 1 row
K2, (K2tog, K4) x [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] times- [37,42,42,47] [47,52] [52,57] stitches
Purl 1 row
K2, (K2tog, K3) x [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] times – [30,34,34,38] [38,42] [42,46] stitches
Purl 1 row
K2, (K2tog, K2) x [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] times – [23,26,26,29] [29,32] [32,35] stitches
Purl 1 row
K2, (K2tog, K1) x [7,8,8,9] [9,10] [10,11] times – [16,18,18,20] [20,22] [22,24] stitches
Purl 1 row
K2tog x [8,9,9,10] [10,11] [11,12] times – [8,9,9,10] [10,11] [11,12] stitches left.

Seam the Back of your Hat

Leaving a long tail for seaming, cut the yarn. Thread it through the remaining stitches twice & gather to form the top point of the hat. See video tutorial here.

Next, working from the top point down, you need to join the left and right edges of your flat knitted piece together to turn it into a hat with a seam down the back. Use mattress stitch to make an invisible seam for a neat finish. Watch the 15 minute video below to see how to do this step by step:

How to Seam a Hat with Mattress Stitch

This 15 minute video explains exactly how to seam the hat in detail, but here’s a brief summary if you prefer:

To do mattress stitch, you work a stitch in from each side. It can be tricky to work out exactly where to put your needle with standard stockinette stitch.

Starting from the top point of your hat, stretch the left edge of your knitting and you will see a ladder of horizontal bars between your edge stitch column and your first stockinette stitch column.

Put your needle under the first 2 of these bars between the edge stitch and the next stitch column.

Now repeat on the right side. Stretch the right edge to see the horizontal bars between the edge stitch and stockinette stitch, put your needle under the first 2 bars, and loosely pull through.

Don’t tighten up the seam yet. Now go back to the left side, and put your needle through the next 2 horizontal bars. Pull through loosely and repeat on the right side.

Keep going and after a few more stitches, pull your seam tight. It should disappear like magic!

Continue mattress stitching, pulling your seam tight after every 4-5 stitches. Take a moment to check your seam at these points, stretching it to adjust if needed. Also make sure that you have an even amount left on both sides.

How to Seam the Bottom Ribbing

I’ve a full step by step guide to mattress stitching rib here, because it’s quite different to stockinette. Or watch the final part of the main hat seaming video (10:49 onwards).

Important: for a folded cuff beanie (Option C only): mattress stitch the ribbing working from the inside (wrong side), so that the seam will be hidden on the inside when you turn up the ribbed cuff.

Once you reach the bottom of your hat, weave in the cast on and cast off tails into the rib stitches (video tutorial available) at the bottom to finish.

I hope you enjoy making this easy knit beanie hat. It’s a nice beginner friendly knitting project to make something practical you can wear everyday or give as a special gift. Got any questions or feedback on this pattern? Just leave a comment below.

This free pattern is for personal, non-commercial use only. It may not be copied, sold, translated or distributed in any way, nor any finished items made using it sold, without permission.