Berroco Mooring - Norah Gaughan Vol 15 PDF

Berroco Mooring Hat – Norah Gaughan Vol. 15 Knitting Pattern Summary

The Mooring hat is a beautifully crafted knitted accessory designed by Norah Gaughan and published as part of Norah Gaughan Vol. 15 by Berroco. Rated as an intermediate skill level project, this pattern offers knitters a rewarding combination of textural techniques that come together in a single, elegant one-size hat with a finished circumference of 20 inches.

What Is Being Made

Mooring is a knitted hat worked as a single, one-size design. The finished piece features a richly detailed fabric that blends classic ribbing at the brim with more intricate cable and lace patterning through the body, creating a hat that is both visually striking and structurally interesting. The finished circumference of 20 inches makes it a well-proportioned adult hat suitable for a wide range of wearers.

Construction and Techniques

The Mooring hat is constructed bottom-up and worked flat (on straight or circular needles), meaning it is knitted from the cast-on edge at the brim upward toward the crown. Because the hat is worked flat rather than in the round, it requires seaming at the finish — the side edges are sewn together using a tapestry needle to close the hat into its final cylindrical shape. This seamed, flat construction is a traditional approach that some knitters find easier for managing complex stitch patterns row by row.

• Bottom-up construction: The hat begins at the brim with a cast-on of 104 stitches on smaller needles and progresses upward to the crown.
• Worked flat: Rows are worked back and forth, with right-side and wrong-side rows clearly distinguished in the pattern instructions.
• Seamed finishing: Once knitting is complete, the side seam is sewn together to form the hat shape.
• Cables: Cable techniques are incorporated into the body of the hat, requiring a cable needle as an additional tool. Cables create raised, twisted rope-like columns of stitches that add dimension and texture to the fabric.
• Lace: Lace patterning is also used, introducing decorative openwork through strategic yarn-overs and decreases. The crown shaping includes a dramatic decrease sequence — including the stitch maneuver sl2tog-k1-p2sso — that draws the stitches together elegantly at the top of the hat.

Stitches Used

The Mooring pattern employs a thoughtful variety of stitches that give the hat its distinctive character:

• K1/P1 Twisted Rib: The brim is worked in a k1/p1 twisted rib, a refined variation of standard ribbing in which stitches are worked through the back loop (tbl). This creates a denser, more elastic, and crisper-looking rib than conventional ribbing — ideal for a snug, well-defined hat brim. The twisted rib is worked over an even number of stitches across two repeating rows.
• Stockinette Stitch: Standard stockinette stitch (st st) forms the gauge reference fabric and is used in portions of the hat body.
• Cable Stitches: Cable crossings worked with a cable needle create the signature twisted and braided motifs associated with this design.
• Lace Decreases: Specialty decrease stitches including ssk (slip, slip, knit) and sl2tog-k1-p2sso (a double decrease) are used, particularly in the crown shaping, to reduce stitches in a decorative and deliberate manner.
• Purl and Knit Through Back Loop (tbl): Both k1-tbl and p1-tbl stitches appear throughout the pattern, contributing to the twisted rib and other textural details.
• Stitch Markers: The pattern calls for stitch markers to help organize and track pattern repeats.

Materials – Yarn and Needles

The recommended yarn is Berroco Ultra