My sister Patty was volunteered to knit a hat for her good friend Ronnie. She consulted with me three years ago and I wrote up instructions for an aran weight hat. This year, I learned that the yarn is actually DK weight. Instead of rewriting the instructions, I offered to knit the hat.

Finding a pattern

I sent an email to the Iona Craft Shop to find out what pattern was used to knit this hat. They told me that the hat was made with a knitting machine and there was no pattern. They used aran weight yarn in colorways: Sea Green, Serpentine, Green Teal, and Blue Teal. Ronnie got the right colorways so the hat is off to a good start. The weight is finer but that’s not a problem.

For this hat, I calculated that I would need about 200 yards. With 4 cones, I had plenty of yarn for this hat.

Initially, I got hung up on reproducing the crown decrease shown in the sample. If you look at the hat that Ronnie wants to copy, the decrease looks like 4 pleats. Perhaps those pleats were created by gathering the hat at the top like the Felicity pattern? I decided not to spend too much time researching how to duplicate that and use a tried and tested decrease method like in the Turn a Square pattern.

Planning the Hat

Ronnie’s head measures 23” and she likes her hats loose. So, I knitted the hat to 23”. With no negative ease, the hat should be loose enough for her.

I decided the following:

• Ribbing: 2.5”
• other three sections: 2.75”
• with brim turned up, hat to be 8.25” in length
• with brim turned down, hat to be 10.75” in length and can be worn in a slouchy style
• sequence of colors: blue teal, serpentine, sea green, and green teal.

Knitting the hat

• Using blue teal and size 3 needles, cast on 104 stitches. K2, p2 ribbing for 2.5”.
• Switch to serpentine and size 5 needles. Knit in stockinette for 2.75”.
• Switch to sea green and knit in stockinette for 2.75”
• Switch to green teal. Knit 1 round and follow crown decreases in the Turn a Square hat pattern.