Stay cozy – knit a balaclava with our free and easy pattern

Overview of the instructions

The Cutie Pie balaclava is a stylish, timeless and versatile knitted hood that keeps you warm in the chilly winds of autumn and winter. The knitted hood is designed to be generous in size to keep your hair beautiful under the hood. The knitted hood has a drawstring that can be used to tighten the hood opening for protection against coldness and wind. The hood can also be used as a neck warmer.

The Cutie Pie balaclava is knitted with doubled House Pörrö yarn. A single DK yarn can also be used as a replacement yarn. In this case, you will need about 200 g of yarn. The hood is knitted from top to bottom as plain stitch, starting with the crown piece. The stitches are collected on both sides of the crown piece and the hood is knitted flat up to the neck. The neck part is knitted in the round and the hood edge is finished using “knit 1 through the back loop, purl 1” rib. The ribbing of the hood’s opening is knitted doubled for the drawstring channel. The drawstring of the hood is knitted as an i-cord.

Read all of the instructions carefully before you start knitting. Be sure to knit a swatch to ensure your knitting tension matches the instructions. Change the needle size if the knitting tension does not match. The knitting tension is always measured on a finished, washed swatch. Knitted fabric changes size when it gets wet.

Knitting instructions for the Cutie pie balaclava

Crown piece

Cast on 24 stitches on 4.5 mm circular needles (80 cm). Knit 19 cm of flat plain stitch.

Cut the yarn. Leave the stitches waiting on the circular needles.

Picking up stitches

Add a new yarn to the piece and use the yarn to pick up by knitting 40 stitches from the right edge of the rectangle on 4.5 mm circular needles. Knit the 24 stitches waiting on the circular needles to continue from the stitches picked up from the edge of the rectangle. Knitting with the yarn, pick up 40 stitches from the left edge of the rectangle on the circular needles. You now have a total of 104 stitches on your needles. You have picked up the stitches on the three edges of the rectangle and the starting edge of the stitches is free.

Hood

Knit flat plain stitch until the height of the piece measured from the middle of the crown down is 28 cm. Knit the row on the right side last.

Cast on 10 stitches to continue the row. Join the knit into a circular knit and place a stitch marker in the middle behind the hood to indicate the beginning of the row. Knit 8 cm of plain stitch in the round.

Ribbing for the hood's bottom edge

Change to 4 mm circular needles (60 cm) and make “knit 1 through the back loop, purl 1” rib for 7 rows.

Bind off the stitches using “knit 1 through the back loop, purl 1” rib.

Ribbing for the hood opening

Pick up 136 stitches on 4 mm circular needles (60 cm) from the hood opening, starting from the left seam of the crown piece, on the right side of the piece. Place a stitch marker on the seam to mark the beginning of the row.

Make 3 rows of “knit 1 through the back loop, purl 1” rib.

Make one row of “knit 1 through the back loop, purl 1” rib, creating holes at the bottom edge of the ribbing for the drawstring.

Make holes at the bottom edge of the hood opening, at both ends of the 10 cast-on stitches. Knit as follows: *Knit 2 stitches together, make a yarn over, knit 8 stitches, make a yarn over, knit 2 stitches together*.

Make 10 rows of “knit 1 through the back loop, purl 1” rib.

Fold the edge of the hood opening double with the wrong sides facing each other and bind off the edge by stitching it onto the inside of the piece. Knit and bind off as follows until the end of the row:

*Pick up one stitch from the starting row of the stitches on the left needle and knit the picked-up stitch together with the stitch on the needle. Bind off one stitch by passing one stitch from the right over the stitch on the left.*

Drawstring for the hood

A drawstring is knitted for the Cutie Pie balaclava. Cast on 3 stitches on a 4 mm knitting needle and repeat the following:

*Knit 3 stitches. Do not turn the piece. Instead, move the stitches back to the beginning of the knitting needle and knit 3 stitches again.* Repeat *–* until the drawstring is 120 cm long.

Bind off the stitches by threading the yarn through the stitches twice with a needle.

Thread the end of the yarn inside the drawstring.

Thread the finished drawstring into the channel.

Finishing

Finish the knitted hood by wetting it with lukewarm water. Soak the knitted hood in water for about 20 minutes so that the water is properly absorbed into the fibres. Remove the hood from the water and gently squeeze it by hand to dry it as much as possible. Roll the hood inside a towel and squeeze it. Place the hood horizontally in its correct dimensions and allow it to dry.

It is always a good idea to finish a knitted garment by wetting to make the knit settle beautifully.

Enjoy your Cutie Pie balaclava!