Honey and Hibiscus Hat

Honey and Hibiscus Hat by Charlotte McHale

What is Being Made

The Honey and Hibiscus Hat is an adult-sized knitted hat designed by Charlotte McHale. This intermediate-level knitting project creates a finished hat with a circumference of 50cm (19.75 inches) and a height of 21cm (8.25 inches), making it suitable for average adult head sizes. The hat features decorative cable and textured stitch work that creates visual interest throughout the crown and body of the garment.

Knitting Techniques Used

This pattern employs several intermediate knitting techniques that work together to create the hat's structured shape and decorative elements. The construction uses circular knitting worked in continuous rounds, which eliminates the need for seaming and creates a seamless, professional finish. The pattern incorporates cable knitting techniques, specifically right and left crossing cables that are manipulated using a cable needle to create twisted stitch patterns. The decreasing shaping required to form the crown utilizes knit and purl decreases to gradually reduce stitches as the hat tapers toward the top.

The stitch marker is used strategically to mark the beginning of each round, which shifts position throughout the pattern as shaping progresses. This technique helps knitters maintain their place and track pattern repeats accurately across the circular fabric.

Stitches Used

The Honey and Hibiscus Hat combines fundamental and decorative stitches to achieve its finished appearance. The primary stitch structure uses stocking stitch (knit stitches on the right side, purl stitches on the wrong side when working flat, or all knit stitches when working in rounds), which serves as the main pattern base from rounds 24-36 and establishes the tension gauge for the project.

Decorative cable stitches create the visual focal points of the design:

• 1RC (Right Cross): Slip one stitch to a cable needle and hold behind the work, knit one stitch from the left needle, then purl one stitch from the cable needle
• 1LC (Left Cross): Slip one stitch to a cable needle and hold in front of the work, purl one stitch from the left needle, then knit one stitch from the cable needle
• 6/1RCP5K: Slip six stitches to a cable needle and hold behind the work, knit one stitch, then purl five stitches, then knit one stitch from the cable needle
• 5/1RCP4K: Slip five stitches to a cable needle and hold behind the work, knit one stitch, then purl four stitches, then knit one stitch from the cable needle

Decrease stitches shape the hat crown:

• K2tog (Knit Two Together): A right-leaning decrease that combines two stitches into one
• P2tog (Purl Two Together): A purl-side decrease that combines two stitches into one

Materials and Tools Required

The Honey and Hibiscus Hat is worked using Aran weight yarn, with a total yardage requirement of approximately 100 meters (50 grams). Aran yarn is a medium-weight yarn that knits at a relatively quick pace while providing good stitch definition, making it ideal for displaying the cable and textured stitch work featured in this design.

Needles and notions include 4.5mm (UK 7 / US 7) double-pointed needles or circular needles in the Honey style, a cable needle for manipulating the cable stitches, and one stitch marker to track the beginning of each round. The stitch marker is removed and repositioned as the round beginning shifts during the shaping process.

The pattern specifies a tension gauge of 19 stitches and 24 rows equaling 10 centimeters (4 inches) in stocking stitch or the main pattern, measured over rounds 24-36. Achieving this gauge is essential for the hat to fit properly; knitters should adjust needle size up if their gauge is tighter than specified, or down if their gauge is looser.