Leading up to Christmas 2022, I knit two hats in super bulky yarn following the Drew Hat pattern by Robyn Devine. I really liked the shape of the hat and fell in love with the simplicity of the four row mock cable stitch pattern.

Decided to try my hand at coming up with a pattern using lighter weight yarn, and The Barnacle Slouch was born! The mock cable stitching really reminds me of barnacles.

I altered the first row of the four row stitch pattern to maintain the two and two ribbing throughout, and gave the hat a wide ribbed beginning and narrow ribbed ending. The weight of the pompom and last section of ribbing help create the slouchy shape.

I combined Patons Classic Wool DK Superwash in Wisteria and Sugarbush Drizzle in Periwinkle Puddle to achieve a hand painted yarn look. The lace weight Sugar Bush adds a little more density to the Knitted fabric on 4 mm needles, and I love the slight halo effect from the mohair. If you are using a single strand of DK, be sure to swatch and check your gauge.

As the stitch pattern is over 4 stitches, customizing the size is easy once you’ve swatched and have your stitches per inch (the pattern goes into a little detail on how to do that). There are also instructions on making a pompom out of the leftover yarn.

This is a great stash buster and a lovely quick project to give as a gift.

You are free to use the pattern to hand make items for sale, just please give me credit for the pattern. Happy knitting!

Update for those allergic to wool: I’m currently knitting a version of this hat usinga single strand of Caron Blossom Cake (cotton/acrylic blend). Still using 4 mm needles, but cast on 92 stitches instead of 100. It turned out great.

See the bottom pictures for a comparison of the two versions, and for pics of the wool-free version.