2 Stash-Busting Knitted Hat Patterns

With basic skills and these easy free knitted hat patterns, you can use up your leftover skeins of yarn and create one-of-a-kind knitted hats.

Head over to the handmade gifts page for more great gift ideas!

If you've knitted or crocheted for any length of time, then you know all about a yarn "stash." It's the last skein, or part of a skein, you have leftover from projects. I don't know about you, but my stash can grow from purchasing yarn on sale that I never really found a project for (even though it seemed like the perfect yarn at the time, lol).

My family has joked about the yarn stored all over the house - so finding ways to use it up is a very good thing.

Which is why the year I was able to use up most of my leftover yarn by knitting hats for all the kids in my family - nieces, nephews, and my kids - for Christmas gifts was a banner year.

Can I tell you how much I loved this? Using up what I had (no waste) and giving a gift they liked (and hopefully used) that was handmade, for ZERO dollars? *Insert all the heart eyes here*

Even though I have knitted sweaters, throws, and many scarves, among other things, I have only knitted one hat in my life before this - and it didn't turn out all that great.

So believe me when I tell you the two patterns that I used are e.a.s.y. with basic stitches and shaping. Once I got it down, I could finish a hat in just a few hours of tv watching so these went pretty quickly, too.

This is a beginner project for sure, though maybe after you've completed your first scarf (that everyone seems to start with) and you've got your tension even.

I used the ribbed pattern (shown center in the photo above) for just two hats, since the other basic hat pattern seemed to produce a nicer hat that worked well with all the different yarns I had. I kept to wool and wool blend yarns, and made sure to check my gauge since I was using different yarns.

Click through the links below to grab the patterns, get your stash together, and start dreaming up ideas of colorways and patterns.

And have fun!