I don’t know about you, but once I learned to knit I saw knitting patterns in everything, from tire tracks on the beach to colorful fabric on chairs at the doctor’s office. It’s no surprise, then, that the lasting impact of a visit to the Alhambra comes in the form of a knitting pattern.

During a 2019 visit to the palace complex that overlooks Granada in southern Spain, I fell head over heels for the intricately carved plaster in the Nasrid Palaces. They instantly reminded me of a knitted hat’s crown, when all the cables come together just right. I couldn’t stop thinking about creating a hat design that echoed the oh-so-satisfying symmetry of those carvings.

Five years (and many drafts) later, I am thrilled to introduce the Nasrid Hat.

The simple and delicate cables of the Nasrid Hat grow from a ribbed brim, creating orderly layers of diamond-like shapes up to the crown. It’s not the Nasrid motif precisely, but I feel like the crisscrossed cables and angular geometry are reminiscent of the Nasrid Palaces’ spectacular carvings.

This is not your average cabled beanie, though.

The Nasrid Hat uses Sarah Mitchell’s Sizing With Spreadsheets framework, which means you get a completely customized hat by entering your head measurements and a few other swatch-based numbers into the accompanying spreadsheet.

You don’t have to do any complicated math. You do, however, really need to swatch for this one. Twice.

Using your measurements and swatch information, the spreadsheet will give you:

• How much yarn you should need
• How many stitches to cast on
• How tall each of your cable motifs should be
• How much to knit before starting decreases

You can use any weight yarn and any size needles, so long as you’re getting fabric you like, and the spreadsheet will make all the calculations you need. In other words, you don’t have to buy specific yarn or work with a needle size you hate: You’re in control here.

What’s more, the design is a “choose your own adventure” situation, in which you choose the order and height of each cabled motif to create exactly the look you want within the space provided—and the spreadsheet will tell you what that is, too. Your hat will be uniquely yours, and the spreadsheet does all the heavy lifting to make that happen.

Because of all these variables, there is a bit more work required before you can cast on than you’ll find with most hat patterns. I think of this as an intermediate level pattern, or possibly an adventurous beginner level. You need to be comfortable knitting cables, reading charts, making and measuring swatches, and working with a spreadsheet to generate the custom pattern details based on your head and swatch measurements.

So, the Nasrid Hat involves more work than most other hats. And? The additional work allows you to make a hat using the yarn and needles you want to create fabric you love—without the burden of figuring out all the complicated formulas. The result is a completely customized hat I hope you’ll be proud to show off.

Look for project photos on Instagram with the hashtag #NasridHat