Fann Street Hat in Rowan Alpaca Soft DK (Fr) - Downloadable PDF

Fann Street Hat by Georgia Farrell – Rowan Alpaca Soft DK Pattern Summary

The Fann Street Hat is a beautifully crafted knitted hat designed by Georgia Farrell and published by Rowan in 2020. Available as a downloadable PDF, this pattern is rated advanced difficulty and produces a single size suitable for an average women's head circumference. The design is worked in the round and features an elegant travelling cable motif that spirals across the body of the hat, giving it a sophisticated, textured appearance that makes it a standout accessory.

Design Overview

The Fann Street Hat is a single-design pattern focused on one beautifully detailed hat. Its defining visual feature is a travelling cable or cross-stitch motif that moves diagonally across a reverse stocking stitch background, creating a dynamic, sculptural texture. The hat is worked in three distinct colour sections, adding a subtle tonal depth to the finished piece without the complexity of stranded colourwork.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single knitted hat designed to fit an average women's head. The construction is worked entirely in the round, beginning at the brim and working upward through a structured body section before shaping the crown with decreases. The travelling cable panels are evenly distributed around the hat, repeating at regular intervals to create a cohesive, all-over textured design.

Techniques Used

• Knitting in the round – the entire hat is worked circularly, either on a set of double-pointed needles or a short circular needle, avoiding any seaming
• Travelling cable cross (Cr3R) – a key technique in this pattern; a stitch is slipped onto a cable needle and held at the back, two stitches are knitted, and then the held stitch is purled, creating a rightward-travelling cross that moves the cable diagonally across the fabric
• Crown shaping with decreases – structured decrease rounds reduce the stitch count progressively to shape the top of the hat, using techniques such as purl two together
• Working with multiple yarn colours – the pattern is divided into three sections, each using a different colourway of Rowan Alpaca Soft DK, requiring yarn joins and careful management of colour changes
• Needle switching – the pattern calls for two different needle sizes at different stages, a technique used to adjust fabric density and gauge across the brim and body sections

Stitches Used

• Reverse stocking stitch (purl in the round) – forms the background fabric of the hat body, giving the cable motif strong visual contrast and relief
• Knit stitches – used within the cable panels to form the raised travelling lines against the purl background
• Purl two together (p2tog) – used during crown shaping to reduce stitch count smoothly and evenly
• Cr3R (cross 3 right) – the signature travelling stitch of this pattern, worked repeatedly across multiple rounds to shift the cable panel diagonally around the hat

Pattern Structure and Rounds

The pattern is organised into clearly numbered rounds across multiple sections. The first and second sections establish the travelling cable motif, with the Cr3R cross appearing at staggered intervals across successive rounds to move the cable panel progressively to the right. Each repeat of the motif spans 18 stitches, and the repeats are distributed evenly around the full circumference of the hat. The third section maintains the established stitch pattern before transitioning into the crown-shaping rounds, where decreases are worked to reduce the stitch count from 96 stitches down toward the final crown closure.

Materials Required

• Yarn: Rowan Alpaca Soft DK – a lightweight, double knitting weight yarn with a soft alpaca-blend composition; three colourways are used:
  • Hyacinth (shade 225) – 1 x 50g ball (Colour 1)
  • Rainy Day (shade 210) – 1 x 50g ball (Colour 2)
  • Hunter Green (shade