Brocatelle Hat Knitting Pattern

Brocatelle Hat in Rowan Fine Tweed Haze

What is Being Made

The Brocatelle is an intermediate-level knitted hat designed by Chloe Thurlow. This project creates a structured hat featuring a distinctive two-color turn-back cuff and a fitted crown with gradual shaping. The design combines colorwork techniques with classic hat construction, resulting in a garment suitable for intermediate knitters seeking to develop their skills in color management and decreasing techniques.

Techniques Used

This hat employs several key knitting techniques that make it an excellent intermediate project:

• Two-color cast-on: The pattern begins with a specialized cast-on using two separate yarn colors (66 stitches in each color for 132 total stitches), creating the foundation for the colorwork sections.
• Yarn twisting: Yarns are twisted together where they meet during the turn-back cuff section to prevent holes from forming, a crucial technique for managing multiple colors in close proximity.
• Stockinette stitch colorwork: The hat is worked primarily in stockinette stitch while maintaining color changes across rows, requiring careful attention to yarn management and stitch consistency.
• Folded cuff construction: After working 14 centimeters, the cast-on edge is folded to the right side and stitches are worked together with live stitches on the needle, creating a professional turn-back cuff effect.
• Graduated crown decreasing: Multiple decrease rows using knit two together (K2tog) and purl two together (P2tog) gradually reduce stitches from 132 down to 11 stitches, shaping the hat crown.
• Closing the crown: The final stitches are threaded through and pulled tight to close the hat top securely.

Stitches Used

The Brocatelle hat utilizes a limited but effective stitch vocabulary:

• Knit stitch (K): The primary stitch forming the stockinette stitch base.
• Purl stitch (P): Used in specific rows, particularly during the initial two-color setup and in certain decrease rows.
• Knit two together (K2tog): A right-leaning decrease used repeatedly throughout the crown shaping to reduce stitch count in a controlled manner.
• Purl two together (P2tog): A left-leaning decrease used in alternating decrease rows to maintain balanced shaping.

The combination of these basic stitches demonstrates how intermediate knitters can create complex-looking garments through strategic stitch placement and color changes rather than complicated stitch patterns.

Materials

The Brocatelle is designed to be worked in Rowan Fine Tweed Haze, a yarn weight suitable for creating structured, well-defined garments. The pattern requires:

• Yarn A (Lawn 005): 1 ball of 50 grams
• Yarn B (Mist 007): 1 ball of 50 grams
• Needles: One pair of 3½mm (US 4/UK size 10) needles for working the entire hat

The specified tension is 24 stitches and 32 rows to 10 centimeters measured over stockinette stitch using 3½mm needles. Achieving this tension is essential for the hat to fit correctly and display the intended proportions of the colorwork sections and crown shaping.

Project Summary

The Brocatelle represents a well-structured intermediate knitting project that builds skills in color management, stitch decreasing, and hat construction. The two-color yarn combination in Rowan Fine Tweed Haze creates visual interest through the Lawn and Mist colorways, while the techniques employed—from the specialized two-color cast-on through the graduated crown decreases—provide valuable experience for knitters advancing beyond basic projects. The finished hat measures approximately 12 centimeters from the turn-back cuff markers to the crown shaping, with the total length reaching approximately 14 centimeters before the crown is shaped down to closure.