Easy Knitting Machine Beanies in 3 Sizes!
Learn how to make a super easy knitting machine beanie in 3 different sizes with this free pattern and step by step tutorial!
Don’t forget to pin this for later!
(This post may contain affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read the disclaimer here. Thank you for your support!)
Get ready to make the fastest knitted beanies humanly possible!
You can make these on a Sentro knitting machine, an Addi, or whatever random Amazon brand you got when you ordered a Sentro.
I got a “Jamit”. Lovely.
But luckily it’s worked just fine. I eventually got 2 smaller ACTUAL Sentro machines, and I can’t see any difference in quality.
They’re all equally cheap plastic, lol.
But surprisingly, I’ve made a whole lot of hats with that off-brand knitting machine and it’s still going strong as far as I can tell.
Maybe I’ll upgrade to an Addi one of these days, but I’ve seen plenty of issues with them too, so I’m not sure if it’s worth it or not.
Anyway…
Why do the counters on these machines always suck?
Before we start, I always get questions about the weird things I have stuck to my knitting machine, so let’s talk about those for a minute.
Approximately 1 day after receiving this lovely machine, the counter that comes with it crapped out on me.
Before it stopped working, it made a horrific grinding squeaky sound, so I was sort of glad to see it go.
But now what was supposed to do?!
How are you supposed to make consistent hats or anything without knowing how many rows you’ve knitted?
And I knew there was no way a manual counter would work for me.
Doing two things at once is not my strong suit.
Surely I would forget to click it after every row and then I’d just be second guessing myself the whole time. Where’s the fun in that?
After some research I came across a cheap digital counter on Amazon and I made a video showing how I installed it if you want to give it a try.
It turned out to be a great counter, I’ve been using it ever since I first installed it a few years ago and it works fantastically!
Much better than the one that came with it ever did. (So there.)
(Not sure who that “so there” was directed at, but yea.)
SIDE NOTE: I was just looking on Amazon randomly and saw that they now have a much more compact counter, which I hastily purchased 2 of to try on my other knitting machines.
So keep an eye out for that video/post that will most definitely be happening in the near future.
I have a feeling this will be much less complicated than installing the first counter was. Hopefully.
Best Yarn for Your Sentro (or whichever circular knitting machine you have)
One thing you gotta know about these machines is they are INCREDIBLY picky about the yarn you can use.
Don’t just try to throw some Red Heart at it and hope for the best.
It will make you very sad/mad/scared.
After making approximately 3,285,394 hats with this machine (possible exaggeration, but I digress), I’ve learned to stick to what works.
Heartland Yarn by Lion Brand works really well.
And it’s soft.
And it’s washable.
There are a few others that work well too, but that’s a post for different day.
Just grab some Heartland for your beanies. Seriously.
Do it.
Heartland Yarn by Lion Brand is wonderfully soft and it comes in beautiful colors inspired by national parks and nature. It's 100% acrylic and a great choice for all kinds of projects.
More Free Circular Knitting Machine Patterns
Check out these other free Sentro knitting machine patterns available on my website:
- Free Striped Knitting Machine Hat Pattern (Reversible!)
- Free Twisted Knitting Machine Headband Pattern
- Easiest Knitting Machine Beanie Hat Pattern (Extra Large Size)
Easy Sentro Beanie in 3 Sizes – Tutorial
Below I’ll give you the whole tutorial for making one of these hats.
It’s the same for each size, except you do different amounts of rows.
The row count chart is below, so check there for how many rows to do for the hat YOU want to make!
Row Count Chart (IMPORTANT!)
NOTE: The yarn amounts are if you use Heartland yarn. If you use a different kind it might be different, so don’t get mad at me. (Please.)
| SIZE | ROWS | APPROX. YARN AMOUNT |
| Small | 110 rows | 90 grams |
| Medium | 120 rows | 98 grams |
| Large | 130 rows | 110 grams |
Supplies You’ll Need
- 48 pin circular knitting machine (Jamit, Sento, Addi, etc.)
- 1 skein Lion Brand Heartland Yarn (I recommend 1 skein per hat- you’ll have a bit left over)
- Large eye needle
- Scissors
Video Tutorial
Check out the tutorial video for this knitting machine beanie on my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe!
Step 1: Casting On
Take a minute to make sure your machine is set to T (for Tube) on the side switch.
Turn on and/or clear your stitch counter.
Crank the handle until the white hook is right in front of the yarn holder and sticking up.
Pull about a foot of yarn out of your skein. I definitely recommend doing a center pull with your yarn, it’ll make your life easier. The yarn barf is worth it.
If you can’t get the center pull end of the yarn to cooperate, the outer tail will also work, you’ll just have to keep unraveling the yarn as you go so it doesn’t have too much tension while you’re knitting.
Hook the yarn under the white hook. The tail will be on the right and the working yarn on the left.
For the cast on row, we’ll be going clockwise around your machine.
Drop the tail of the yarn in the center of the knitting machine.
Turn the crank slightly so the white needle moves to the right, and you’ll pass the yarn BEHIND the next hook.
Continue slowly cranking and you’ll hook the yarn IN FRONT of the next hook.
Repeat this, alternating going in front of and behind each hook until you get back to the hook just to the right of the white hook.
This is how you’ll do the whole first row, aka your cast on row.
Make sure the yarn goes under the divider between the white hook and the hook to the right of the white hook, and then feed your yarn into the yarn holder groove.
Insert the yarn down into the smallest tension holder, which on my machine is the hole closest to the machine.
Congrats, you just casted on!
Step 2: Knitting the Beanie
For the first 5 to 10 rows, crank at a slow-ish pace, that way nothing weird happens. Sometimes if you start off too fast you can end up with dropped or tucked stitches.
After you get a few rows done, you can relax and just crank away.
I used my electric screwdriver with the adapter to turn the handle for me. And my shoulder thanked me!
If you did the center pull yarn tail for your skein of yarn, it should just flow smoothly out and you don’t have to worry about feeding it to your machine as you go.
If you did the other tail, well, you’ll be manually unraveling the yarn as you go so it doesn’t pull and make your machine mad.
Knit however many rows you need for the size beanie you are making. (See the chart above this tutorial.)
Eventually, your hat is going to get long enough to touch the table underneath your machine.
You’ll want to stop and roll the hat up on itself so it doesn’t get all twisted or whatnot.
Then just continue knitting till you get all your rows done!
Step 3: Casting off
After you finish your last row, stop just after you get past the white hook.
Cut the yarn, leaving about a foot long tail, and place in the center of the machine, making sure it’s hooked around the white hook.
It’s a good idea to gently pull on it toward the center of the machine as you start cranking this last time.
Crank your knitting machine ALMOST all the way around one more time, stopping when you have 4 hooks left or so before the white one gets back to the front.
Make sure you stop in time or the stitches will start dropping off and you’ll be sad!
Grab your yarn needle and thread the yarn tail onto it.
Carefully turn the crank a smidge more, until the white hook is just to the left of the yarn holder but the white hook is still down.
Scoop up the loop on the pegs to the left of where the white hook lives. (Your yarn tail will be coming out of the white hook spot, FYI.)
I recommend putting your finger over the next yarn loop to the left of the one your scooping, so it doesn’t accidentally come off prematurely and make your life hard.
Continue scooping up the live stitches off the pegs going around to the left.
When you get all the way back around to the hooks that are raised but still have yarn loops on them, slowly crank the handle and catch the remaining loops one at a time until they’re all removed.
Your tube is now free!
Set your knitting machine aside and it’s time to turn this tube into a hat.
Step 4: Finishing the Beanie
At this point, you’ll have a long tube.
Which is cool, but we were really going for a hat. So let’s make that happen.
I like to lay the tube out flat and stretch it a bit to even out the stitch tension.
Then starting on the side that already has the needle threaded on, pull the yarn tail to cinch up that side.
Then, you’re going to use that tail with the yarn needle and sew around the edge of the hole so the yarn is doubled up around it and tie a couple of knots to secure.
(Make sure you sew in the same direction that the yarn is already going so you don’t end up UNsewing the end, if you know what I mean.)
Thread the tail through the hole into the inside of the hat.
Now you’re going to feed this side of the hat up inside the middle and bring it to the other side.
Pull the needle off the yarn from the first side and thread it onto the yarn on the other side.
Cinch it up this side of the hat the same way as you did the first, sew through the stitches surrounding the hole and tie a knot.
Now you’re going to take both yarn tails and tie a tight knot. This will pull the two layers of your beanie together and make sure they don’t separate.
At this point, your yarn tails are probably pretty long and not the same lengths.
Cut them, leaving at least 10 to 12 inches or so of length. That way they’re more manageable.
Thread both yarn tails onto the needle and feed them in between the two layers of the hat.
Cut the excess yarn and the tails will disappear into two layers of the hat, never to be seen again.
You did it!
Want to Add a Pom Pom? (of course you do)
If you want to add a pom pom, I’ve got a couple tutorials here for ya-
In Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this Easy Knitting Machine Beanie Pattern!
I’ve had so much fun making hats for my family with this pattern and they look amazingly professional. No one has to know how easy they are to make!
If you make this knitting machine project, please share a picture over on Instagram and tag me @marchingnorth so I can take a look.
I love seeing all of your awesome creations, it makes my day!
More Knitting Patterns!