Some time ago I made a cardigan from lovely Birlinn Yarns from the Outer Hebrides, and called it my Hebrides Cardigan. My maternal forbears come from the Isle of Islay so that was my inspiration. I was astounded when I published the pattern for this cardigan and so many people liked it, so much so that the sales of the pattern paid for the yarn! Perhaps this was something I could do again? Fast forward a couple of years and now I have retired from the day job and am having a brilliant time designing knitting patterns for all the stash I have built up over the years.

Anyway, this hat is based on motifs from the cardigan, but instead of Birlinn Yarn I have used KDD Milarrochy Tweed, which is ideal for colourwork hats as it is soft and only improves with time and rainfall/blizzards/Scottish weather. The hat has a deep lined brim to keep your ears warm when the gales are blowing, and it works if you wear glasses. The colours of Milarrochy Tweed are a little different from the Birlinn and the yarn is a little less thick, so if you do want to use Birlinn, I would recommend going up a needle size and down a hat size.

The hat is knitted in the round from the bottom up. I have used a soft merino sock yarn for the lining of the deep brim, to ensure a completely tickle-free experience. The lining is knitted first, then the brim, then lining and brim are joined together. A variable number of sheep can be worked next. The crown is then worked with centred double decreases, and an optional tassel added.
The motifs are worked from a chart. There are eleven 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. It is difficult to be precise about exactly how much yarn you need due to small quantities, but you will need approximately 250metres in all for size medium.

The pattern includes photo tutorials for loopy cast-on and making a tassel.