Daystar Hat in Rowan Alpaca Soft DK (De) - Downloadable PDF

Daystar Hat by Martin Storey – Knitting Pattern Summary (Rowan Alpaca Soft DK)

The Daystar Hat is a beautifully crafted knitted hat designed by Martin Storey and published by Rowan as part of their pattern collection (reference ZB276-00009-DEP, © Rowan 2020). This pattern is available as a downloadable PDF and is rated advanced in difficulty, making it an excellent project for experienced knitters looking to develop or showcase their stranded colourwork skills. The finished hat has a total length of approximately 21 cm, making it a snug, well-proportioned beanie-style design.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single knitted hat worked in the round from the brim upward, featuring a richly textured two-colour stranded pattern across the body and a neatly decreased crown. The design is compact yet detailed, with a repeating motif that creates a striking visual effect typical of Scandinavian-inspired knitwear.

Design and Construction

The hat is constructed entirely in the round, beginning at the brim and working upward through the patterned body before shaping the crown with a series of structured decreases. Key construction details include:

• The pattern begins at Round 1 of the chart, with the 14-stitch pattern repeat worked 9 times per round, creating a seamless, continuous colourwork motif around the entire circumference of the hat.
• Rounds 1 through 37 are worked once, after which Rounds 34–37 are repeated once more before the crown shaping begins.
• The crown is shaped by working the established pattern while introducing regular decrease rounds, reducing from the full stitch count down through stages — for example, to 108 stitches and then to 90 stitches — until the hat is fully closed at the top.

Techniques Used

This pattern employs several techniques that place it firmly in the advanced skill category:

• Stranded colourwork (Norwegian technique / Norwegertechnik): The body of the hat is worked in a two-colour stranded method, sometimes referred to as Fair Isle or Norwegian knitting. This involves carrying two yarn colours simultaneously across each round, creating floats on the wrong side of the fabric. Maintaining even tension across the floats is essential for a neat, professional result.
• Knitting in the round: The entire hat is worked in the round using either a set of double-pointed needles or a short circular needle, eliminating the need for seaming and ensuring the colourwork chart is always read from the right side.
• Two-colour ribbing: The gauge swatch and brim section are worked in a two-colour rib pattern, adding elasticity and visual interest to the cast-on edge.
• Crown decreases: Structured k2tog (knit two together) decreases are worked at regular intervals across multiple rounds to shape the crown smoothly, maintaining the colourwork pattern throughout the decrease rounds where possible.

Stitches Used

• Knit stitch (Rechts / re): The primary stitch used throughout the hat body, worked in the round to produce a smooth stocking stitch / stockinette fabric on the right side.
• Two-colour rib: Used at the brim for stretch and structure.
• K2tog (2 Maschen rechts zusammenstricken / 2 M re zus-str): A right-leaning decrease used repeatedly during crown shaping to reduce the stitch count in a controlled, even manner.

Colourwork Chart

The pattern includes a colourwork chart with a 14-stitch repeat that is worked 9 times around the hat. The chart-based approach is typical of stranded colourwork patterns and requires the knitter to read each round from right to left, following the two-colour sequence carefully. Knitters new to chart reading may wish to use a magnetic board or row counter to track their position.

Materials – Yarn

The pattern calls for Rowan Alpaca Soft DK, a lux