Stella's hat

Stella's Hat by Melissa LaBarre

What Is Being Made

Stella's Hat is a classic adult-sized knitted beanie designed by Melissa LaBarre. This intermediate-level project creates a comfortable, everyday hat suitable for most adult head sizes. The design features a structured crown with a folded garter stitch brim and a textured body created through alternating knit and purl stitches, offering both visual interest and comfortable stretch.

Techniques Used

This pattern employs several fundamental knitting techniques that make it ideal for intermediate knitters looking to expand their skills. The hat begins with a long tail cast-on, a foundational method that creates a flexible, finished edge perfect for a hat brim. The construction uses circular knitting worked in the round, which eliminates the need for seaming and creates seamless fabric. The pattern transitions from garter stitch (created by alternating knit and purl rows in the round) to a ribbed stitch pattern for the main body. The crown shaping involves decreases that are worked using double-pointed needles to manage the decreasing stitch count as the hat tapers toward the top.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch: Created by knitting one round followed by purling one round, repeated for 10 rounds to form the brim. This textured stitch lies flat and provides a classic folded edge.
• Stockinette stitch: Two rounds of knit stitches worked between the garter stitch section and the pattern repeats.
• Ribbed stitch pattern: An alternating k2, p2 (knit 2, purl 2) pattern that forms the main body of the hat. The pattern shifts between rows 13–16, creating a subtle texture change: k2, p2 repeats on rows 13–14, then shifts to p2, k2 on rows 15–16, then repeats this four-row sequence.
• Decreases: Used at the crown to shape the hat as stitches are gradually reduced to close the top.

Materials

This pattern requires minimal materials, making it an economical project. The suggested yarn is Malabrigo Merino Worsted, requiring only 1 skein. The pattern accommodates multiple yarn weights in the worsted family, including aran and heavy worsted options, offering flexibility for yarn substitutions. Needles needed include a 5mm (US 8) 16-inch circular needle for knitting the body of the hat in the round, and a set of 5 double-pointed needles (DPNs) in 5mm (US 8) for working the crown decreases when the stitch count becomes too small for the circular needle. Additional notions include a stitch marker to denote the beginning of each round and a blunt needle for weaving in ends. The recommended gauge is 16 stitches and 24 rows over 4 inches in the main stitch pattern, and the pattern begins with a cast-on of 80 stitches.

Pattern Summary

The hat is constructed from the bottom up, beginning with 80 cast-on stitches. The first 10 rounds establish a garter stitch brim, followed by 2 rounds of stockinette stitch. The main body is then worked in the four-row ribbed pattern repeat until the piece measures approximately 6 inches from the cast-on edge. Crown decreases follow, worked using the double-pointed needles to shape the top of the hat. This straightforward construction makes Stella's Hat an excellent intermediate project for knitters seeking to practice in-the-round knitting, stitch pattern work, and basic shaping techniques.