limelight
A hat by Hollianna Bryan
I thought for a long time that brioche stitch had defeated me. I looked longingly at the lovely vertical stripes, the ribbing, and the squishiness of the fabric and wished that I, too, could make it. However, no matter how often I tried, the yarn-over method of working brioche stitch kept devolving into weird scraggy fabric. I had lost. And then I realized, thanks to The Principles of Knitting, that I had actually made many hats in brioche stitch, using the yarn-below method. Life was suddenly so much more fun. To celebrate, I decided to knit some hats in brioche rib, designing them to fit as loose, slightly poufy beanies. Each hat, as written, is reversible. I added a pompom to the infant hat because, well, baby hats should have pompoms. If you like, choose a favorite side and add your own pompom. Materials: Worsted weight yarn, about 120 yards main color, 60 yards contrast color for largest size. Models are knitted in Vickie Howell's Sheep(ish): lime(ish), hot pink(ish), teal(ish), coral(ish). Sheep(ish) is a springy yarn that complements the stitch's loft and stretch. Needles: US 6 (4mm); or to make fabric you like. Abbreviations: kb: knit the stich below that on the needle; pb: purl the stitch below that on the needle; k3tog: knit three together. Sizes: Infant, Small, Medium, Large Copyright Hollianna Bryan 2013. This pattern is an original, copyrighted design, available for free but only intended for personal, non-commercial use. Any sale of items produced using this pattern without prior, written permissionfrom thedesignerisforbidden Infant, has a brim of 12 inches unstretched and is about 6 inches deep. Small, which would fit a child, has a brim of 14 inches unstretched and is 7.5 inches deep. Medium would fit a child to adult woman and is approximately 8 inches deep with an unstretched brim of approximately 15 inches. The Large has room for a much larger head, and/or lots more hair, and measures 8.5 inches deep with a 16-inch unstretched brim. While modifying the hat to suit your needs, please remember that the crown decrease is quite shallow; I suggest knitting to your desired depth before starting the crown. On US 6 needles, cast on 64 (72, 80, 88) stitches and join to work in the round being careful not to twist the stitches. Work a knit 2, purl 2 brim for 1 (1.5, 2, 2) inches. Brioche Stitch: Row 1: \* kb, k1 \* Row 2: \* p1, pb \* For the body of the hat, knit one round to set up for the brioche stitch. Work the brioche stitch until the hat measures 6 (7.5, 8, 8.5) inches from the cast on edge, and ending with a purl row. You will use the contrast color for the knit rows and the main color for the purl rows. The crown decrease is essentially flat and adds little-to-no depth in the hat. For this reason, measure the hat's depth previous to the crown and knit to your desired length before shaping. All decreases happen in the knit rows; work the purl rows and non-decrease knits rows in the brioche stitch. When working a purl below after a knit decrease, you will want to pick up all three loops rather than one, as you normally would. This is a bit fiddly but should be workable as long as you remember to decrease rather loosely.
Infant
Medium
Decrease 1: \* kb, k3tog \* (32 stitches) Rows 2-4: work pattern Decrease 2: \* kb, k3tog \* (16) Rows 6-8: work pattern Decrease 3: \*kb, k3tog \*(8) Row 10: purl in pattern Decrease 1: \* kb, k3tog \* (40 stitches) Rows 2-4: work pattern Decrease 2: \* kb, k3tog \* (20) Rows 6-8: work pattern Decrease 3: \*kb, k3tog \*(10) Row 10: purl in pattern
Small
Large
Decrease 1: \* kb, k3tog \* (36 stitches) Rows 2-4: work pattern Decrease 2: \* kb, k3tog \* (18) Rows 6-8: work pattern Decrease 3: \*kb, k3tog \*, kb, k1 (10) Row 10: purl in pattern Decrease 1: \* kb, k3tog \* (44 stitches) Rows 2-4: work pattern Decrease 2: \* kb, k3tog \* (22) Rows 6-8: work pattern Decrease 3: \*kb, k3tog \*, kb, k1 (12) Row 10: purl in pattern yarn, pull through the remaining live stitches, and bind off. Weave in all end:
Copyright Hollianna Bryan 2013. This patte. intended for personal, non-commercial use.A permission from the designer is forbidden hted design, available for free but only ed using this pattern without prior, written
