From the pattern:

This hat is a refinement of my first foray into three-color double-knitting. I stumbled across the chart on Jessica Tromp’s website and created this pattern. I got many comments on it when Twist Collective put it atop my article on double-knitting in their Winter 2009 issue, but I didn’t have a pattern at the time and didn’t expect I’d be able to publish one anyway, since the chart was not originally mine. However, honesty is the best policy, and I emailed Jessica to ask if it was okay if I used this pattern in my book — and to my surprise, she agreed! The first hat I designed with it used an 8-sided decrease and spiraled up to a point — but I never liked the point, so I worked out a more complex and elegant closure, charted here.

Struktur is a German word, which Google translates to, among other things, “structure, texture, fabric, construction, weave”. Considering that it also looks like a set of skeletal building blocks, I couldn’t have asked for a better name for the pattern.

What’s New?

This is one of the hats that I felt was most in need of redesign for finer yarn. The original was in worsted weight yarn, and due to the combination of thicker yarn and denser fabric owing to the tension of the third color, the final piece was structurally stable to the point that it would have been better used as a bowl than a hat (and indeed, was used frequently that way for raffle tickets at my local Guild). Sport weight yarn allowed me to make a couple of improvements. First, the fabric is lighter and therefore more wearable. Second, I’ve recharted the repeat to be smaller, so I’ve been able to introduce better sizing. I also used a different color rotation to give the two layers a different look from the original.

When possible, I’ve tried to use yarn that is related to the yarn that I originally used. Because I used Cascade 220 for the original hat, I’m using 220 Sport for this one. Unfortunately, the huge gamut of colors available in the worsted variety is not available in Sport, so I’ve tried to come close to what I used before, with mixed success. It’s my hope that you’ll play with your own color selections too.