This is a stranded colorwork hat I originally made for my sister to wear out in the woods during hunting season. She lives in Colorado, where it gets especially cold in the autumn and winter months. The nature of stranded colorwork makes this hat doubly thick, which, paired with the high visibility yarns I chose for her hat, makes it perfect to wear while hiking.

The pattern starts off with a half-twisted rib brim, with options to make a folded or unfolded version. I find half-twisted rib to look especially neat and clean when folded up. Then we begin the colorwork ombre process, with both charted and written instructions. There is one chart for both adult sizes, and a separate chart for the child size.

If you need to add length to the hat, whether to make it slouchy, to fit a larger head, or to accommodate a slightly off row gauge, I would recommend doing so during the center colorwork portion of the chart, repeating the “taxi cab” or “checkerboard” rows. I find this makes the two colors look a bit more balanced, since the ribbing is knitted in the MC, and the decreases are done in the CC. Adding these rows would be repeating lines 16-18 of the chart for adults, and 12-13 plus 16-17 of the chart for children.

Once your desired length is reached, the decreases are worked. The handful of stitches remaining after the decrease rounds are threaded onto a tapestry needle and sewn closed.