330 Two Ducks Hat - Knitting Pattern for Men and Women in Valley Yarns Northampton Bulky

330 Two Ducks Hat – Knitting Pattern for Men and Women by Elisabeth Parker

The 330 Two Ducks Hat is a unisex knitted hat pattern designed by Elisabeth Parker and published under the Valley Yarns brand. This intermediate-level design produces a warm, textured beanie worked entirely in the round from the brim upward, making it an excellent project for knitters who are comfortable with basic cable techniques and circular needle construction. The finished hat features a striking cable and twisted-stitch motif that travels outward from a central column, creating a bold, sculptural texture well suited to chunky-weight yarn.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a knitted hat for men and women, designed to be worked as a single seamless piece from cast-on edge to crown. The hat is structured with a ribbed brim section measuring approximately 3.5 inches before transitioning into the decorative cable panel that defines the body and crown shaping. The overall silhouette is a classic fitted beanie, made cozy and substantial by the use of bulky-weight wool yarn.

Techniques Used

• Bottom-up construction: The hat begins at the cast-on edge and is worked upward toward the crown, which is a traditional and intuitive approach for hat knitting.
• Seamless, worked in the round: The entire hat is knitted in the round on a 16-inch circular needle, transitioning to double-pointed needles as the crown decreases reduce the stitch count and the circular needle becomes too large.
• Cables: The signature decorative element of this hat is a cable panel featuring Right Twist (RT) and Left Twist (LT) stitches worked against a purl background. These twists are executed with the aid of a cable needle (CN) and create the distinctive spreading, wing-like motif that gives the hat its character.
• Ribbing: The brim is worked in a knit-one, purl-one rib pattern, providing elasticity and a neat, snug fit around the head.
• Crown shaping with decreases: The pattern uses ssk (slip, slip, knit) and k2tog (knit two together) decreases to shape the crown, reducing from 64 stitches at cast-on down through successive decrease rounds to close the top of the hat neatly.

Stitches Used

• Knit and purl stitches – the foundation of both the ribbed brim and the textured cable body
• Right Twist (RT) – a cable-needle twist that crosses stitches to the right, worked against a purl background
• Left Twist (LT) – a cable-needle twist that crosses stitches to the left, worked against a purl background
• Ssk – a left-leaning decrease used in crown shaping
• K2tog – a right-leaning decrease used in crown shaping
• Stockinette stitch – referenced in the gauge measurement at 3 stitches per inch

Construction Details

The hat is cast on with 64 stitches and joined in the round. The brim is worked in a k1, p1 rib pattern until the piece measures 3.5 inches, establishing a stretchy, well-fitting foundation. From there, the cable motif begins, with Right Twist and Left Twist stitches moving outward from a central knit stitch across each pattern repeat. The cable rounds alternate with plain rounds in which knit stitches are knitted and purl stitches are purled, maintaining the established texture. As the crown shaping begins, decreases are worked symmetrically on either side of each cable repeat, reducing the stitch count progressively — for example, from 64 stitches to 56 stitches after the first decrease round — until the hat can be finished off at the top.

Materials

• Yarn: 1 skein of Valley Yarns Northampton Bulky — a 100% wool yarn weighing