Nesting

Nesting Hat by Melissa LaBarre

What Is Being Made

Nesting is a downloadable knitting pattern for a lace hat designed by Melissa LaBarre. This intermediate-level project creates a elegant, textured hat featuring a lace pattern worked in the round. The hat is constructed from the bottom up, beginning with a ribbed cuff and transitioning into the main lace design that forms the body of the hat.

Knitting Techniques Used

This pattern employs several fundamental and intermediate knitting techniques. The hat begins with a long-tail cast-on method, which creates a sturdy, elastic foundation ideal for ribbed cuffs. Knitters will work in 1x1 ribbing (alternating knit and purl stitches) to create the fitted cuff section. An increase row using the kf/b (knit front and back) technique doubles the stitch count to transition from the cuff to the main body. The primary construction involves working in the round on circular needles and double-pointed needles, a technique that eliminates the need for seaming and creates seamless, tubular fabric. The pattern features a lace pattern worked from a chart, which requires reading charted instructions and executing yarn-overs and decreases to create decorative openwork.

Stitches Used

• Knit (k): The fundamental stitch that forms the base of knitted fabric
• Purl (p): The reverse of the knit stitch, used in the ribbed cuff for texture and elasticity
• Kf/b (knit front and back): An increase stitch that creates two stitches from one, used in the increase row to expand stitch count
• Yarn-overs and decreases: Essential stitches for creating the lace pattern, which form the decorative openwork characteristic of the hat's main design

Materials and Gauge

The Nesting pattern is designed to use The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering yarn, a fingering-weight yarn that provides approximately 385 yards per 100-gram skein. The pattern requires approximately 225 yards of yarn, meaning one skein provides sufficient yardage with some remaining. Knitters will need two circular needles—a US 2 (2.75mm) 16-inch circular needle for the ribbed cuff and a US 4 (3.5mm) 16-inch circular needle for the main lace body—plus one set of US 4 double-pointed needles for the crown shaping. Additional notions include a stitch marker to denote the beginning of rounds and a blunt needle for weaving in yarn ends. The pattern is worked to a gauge of 24 stitches and 32 rows over 4 inches in the lace pattern on the larger needle, which ensures proper fit and drape of the finished hat.

Pattern Structure

The hat construction follows a logical progression: after casting on 118 stitches and joining for circular knitting, knitters work 13 rows of 1x1 ribbing on the smaller needle. The increase row then uses the kf/b technique to increase to 176 stitches. The pattern then transitions to the larger needle and works the Main Chart—a lace pattern that is repeated three times in total—before moving to decrease instructions to shape the crown. This structure creates a hat with a fitted ribbed cuff, a textured lace body, and a properly tapered crown.