I wanted to design a hat for the science march that would be easy for anyone to knit. I think the pussyhat was so successful because it was a pattern that even beginners could easily knit. Oceans are one of my biggest concerns and so my design is for an ocean themed hat, with waves washing up onto a sandy beach. You can decorate it with a sewn-on ocean themed button or brooch. Since this is a beanie designed to highlight science and the challenges it faces, for the march, you may wish to decorate the beanie with what is now more common than shells on our beaches – plastic trash.

This is a great pattern for using up those leftovers. The ocean can be any number of leftover yarns. Just arrange the colors so that they complement each other, then join in a new color when one is used up. Instructions are given for knitting the hat in the round, which is the fastest way to do it, and also for knitting flat and seaming later, for those who are not ready to try knitting in the round.

Instructions are given for sizes 20” (51 cm) and 23” (58 cm) in worsted weight yarn. These correspond to X-small and med-large adult sizes. By using DK weight yarn and a gauge of 20 sts and 26 rows/4” you can use the 20” pattern to make an 18” beanie (child) and the 23” pattern to make a 21” beanie (small).

This was designed specifically to be an easy knit. The only stitches needed are K, P, Kfb, K2tog, P2tog.

Here is the link to the science march website: https://www.marchforscience.com/

This pattern was free until April 22nd, 2017.