Berroco Laberge Hat Knitting Pattern

Berroco Laberge Knit Hat

What Is Being Made

The Berroco Laberge is a knitted hat featuring a classic two-tone colorway and textured design. This easy-skill-level project creates a finished hat measuring approximately 22 inches around with a 9-inch height when the lower edge is folded up. The hat combines smooth stockinette stitch with textured garter stitch sections, resulting in a visually interesting and wearable accessory.

Techniques Used

This hat is constructed using several key knitting techniques:

• Bottom-up construction: The hat is worked from the lower edge upward, beginning with a cast-on and building toward the crown shaping.
• Worked flat: Rather than being worked in the round, this hat is knitted flat on straight needles, requiring seaming to join the finished pieces.
• Seamed construction: After the flat knitting is complete, the edges are seamed together using a tapestry needle to form the hat's cylindrical shape.
• Striped colorwork: The design incorporates two distinct yarn colors—Opal and Charcoal—creating horizontal stripes and color blocking throughout the hat.
• Decreasing for shaping: Strategic decreases are worked at specific intervals to shape the crown and create the hat's fitted top.

Stitches Used

The Laberge pattern employs fundamental knitting stitches to build its structure and texture:

• Stockinette stitch (St st): Used for the lower portion of the hat, this stitch creates a smooth, classic fabric with a flat appearance on the right side.
• Garter stitch: Applied in the middle section using the heavier yarn, garter stitch produces horizontal ridges and adds textural interest and weight to the design.
• Knit and purl decreases: The pattern uses knit two together (k2 tog) and purl two together (p2 tog) decreases to shape the crown, reducing stitch counts systematically to form the hat's tapered top.

Materials and Tools

The Laberge pattern calls for specific Berroco yarns and needles to achieve the intended gauge and finished fabric:

• Yarn A: One ball of Berroco Marmot (50 grams) in colorway #3710 Opal, a lighter-weight yarn used for the stockinette stitch base.
• Yarn B: One hank of Berroco Vintage Chunky (100 grams) in colorway #6189 Charcoal, a heavier-weight yarn that creates the textured garter stitch sections.
• Needles: Straight knitting needles in sizes 8 (5.00 mm) and 10 (6.00 mm), with the smaller needles used for the initial stockinette sections and the larger needles for the garter stitch work.
• Notions: A tapestry needle is required for seaming the finished hat pieces together.

Gauge Information

Achieving proper gauge is essential for this pattern's success. The pattern specifies two different gauges depending on the yarn and stitch used: 16 stitches and 24 rows equal 4 inches in stockinette stitch with Yarn A on the smaller needles, while 14 stitches and 28 rows equal 4 inches in garter stitch with Yarn B on the larger needles. Knitters are strongly encouraged to knit a gauge swatch before beginning the project to ensure accurate finished measurements.

Pattern Overview

The hat construction begins with casting on 80 stitches using the smaller needles and Yarn A, then working in stockinette stitch for 6 inches. The knitter then switches to the larger needles and introduces Yarn B, working a decrease row to reduce stitches to 70. The middle section is worked in garter stitch until the piece measures 10 inches from the beginning. Crown shaping is then executed through a series of decrease rows that progressively reduce the stitch count, creating the tapered top characteristic of this hat design. The flat-worked pieces are subsequently seamed together to form the finished hat.