About the pattern
In September 2023 a piece of land in our village was unexpectedly put up for sale. This land has hosted our allotment gardens since June 1851, and the land has been leased to the Parish Council since this time. Long story short, an enormous fundraising effort including grant applications has ensued to try and purchase the land so that it can belong to the village in perpetuity.
Allotment gardens are a very important part of any community. As well as being a place where people without their own gardens can grow vegetables or keep hens, supplying healthy food for their families and neighbours, they are vital for participants’ mental health and wellbeing and the social fabric of the community.
I decided to knit a hat to be sold at an auction that was organised as a fundraiser. I am one of those people who always has a bag of every colour of KDD Milarrochy Tweed. It’s ideal for colourwork hats as it comes in a great range of colours for painting knitting pictures, is soft and only improves with time and rainfall/blizzards/British weather. I have been asked to provide a pattern so others can knit the hat for their gardening friends and relatives. The hat has a deep lined brim to keep your ears warm when the gales are blowing, and it works if you wear glasses or hearing aids.
The hat is knitted in the round from the bottom up. I have used a soft baby alpaca and silk yarn for the lining of the deep brim, to ensure a completely tickle-free experience. The lining is knitted first, then the brim, with a row of flowers then spades, forks and watering cans, then lining and brim are joined together. We then have a selection of hens and wheelbarrows, followed by a row of carrots, the tops of which morph into a Tree of Life motif which is continued onto the crown, and worked with centred double decreases. An optional tassel can be added.
The motifs are worked from a chart. There are seventeen colours in this chart, but you don’t use very much of any of the yarns, so it is ideal for using up bits and pieces of leftovers.
You can of course vary the background colours as much as you like, but make sure that there is enough contrast between background and motif. You don’t need to use Milarrochy Tweed; I think this hat would also work well with Jamieson and Smith jumper weight, Jamieson’s spindrift, or Knit Picks Palette. I recommend using a light colour for the spades and watering cans with a dark background, and a dark colour for the wheelbarrows and hens, with a light background.
Skill Level
Intermediate/advanced.
If you are comfortable with colourwork this is a straightforward pattern with no unusual or difficult techniques. If you have not done colourwork before, a hat is a good place to start. Tutorials are included for a loopy cast-on which makes it easier to join brim and lining, and for making a tassel.