If you live in New Jersey as I do, it’s worth knowing that the knobbed whelk is the state seashell. But it is also the state seashell of Georgia – while Delaware’s is the channeled whelk and Texas has the lightning whelk.

The Whelk pattern itself is a lovely and interesting waffle-weave pattern perfect for hats. This pattern consists of a flat folded double brim which then showcases the textured whelk pattern on the body and crown. A simple 4-st by 4-row pattern is easy to work consisting of knit, purl, and slip stitches.

The pattern is written for a standard adult size but it would be easy to size up or down as long as you keep the whelk body section rows in multiples of eight stitches.

My favorite provisional cast-on is the crochet cast-on. An excellent how-to video can be found on this website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGG0AiJ3XE .

As far as blocking goes, I typically soak my knitted hats for 15 minutes in tepid water and then spin (spin cycle only) on gentle in my washing machine. I then stretch the hat over a suitably sized mixing bowl (9” diameter works well for an adult hat), being sure that the brim curls underneath the bowl and is NOT stretched. I let the hat get about 80% dry and then take it off the bowl and lie it flat on a towel to dry fully before attaching the pompom.

If you wish to use the same yarn you knit the hat with for the pompom, you will need a pompom maker and also allow sufficient yardage to do so. If you want to make a slouchier hat, allow sufficient yarn for that as well.

For those of you who are interested, more information about whelks may be found here: https://www.savecoastalwildlife.org/featured-coastal-anim...

All efforts were made to make this pattern error-free. It is intended for individual home use only and not to be reproduced or re-knit for profit.