Lana Grossa Hat Knitting Pattern

Lana Grossa Hat in Cashmere Fine

What Is Being Made

This is a classic knitted hat designed to fit head circumferences of 54–58 cm. The hat features a sophisticated brioche rib stitch pattern worked throughout, creating a textured, elastic fabric with excellent stretch and recovery. The design is from Lana Grossa's Accessories 19 collection and offers a timeless, refined aesthetic suitable for everyday wear.

Techniques Used

The hat is constructed using several key knitting techniques:

• Bottom-up construction: The hat begins with a cast-on at the brim and is worked upward toward the crown, allowing for easy adjustments to length before shaping begins.
• Seamless, worked-in-the-round methodology: Although the pattern instructions reference flat knitting with selvage stitches, the design is engineered to be worked seamlessly, minimizing finishing work and creating a polished final product.
• Crown shaping: The hat features graduated decreases worked across three distinct shaping sections, with rest rows between each decrease round to allow the brioche rib pattern to settle and maintain its characteristic texture.
• Strategic decrease placement: The pattern uses sk2p (slip, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over) and k2tog decreases positioned within the brioche rib pattern to create a smooth, symmetrical crown taper.

Stitches Used

Brioche rib is the primary stitch throughout this hat. This advanced stitch combines yarn overs with slipped stitches, creating a reversible, highly elastic fabric with pronounced vertical columns. The brioche rib pattern used here is worked over a multiple of 2 plus 2 selvage stitches, with a three-row repeat that establishes the characteristic brioche texture. The stitch involves making yarn overs, slipping stitches purlwise, and knitting together the slipped stitch with its corresponding yarn over to create the distinctive brioche loops. The pattern maintains this stitch through the body of the hat until crown shaping begins, at which point decreases are integrated directly into the brioche rib pattern to preserve visual continuity.

Materials and Specifications

This hat requires 100 grams of Lana Grossa Cashmere 16 Fine yarn in the colorway Petrol (color 13). The yarn composition is 80% pure wool, 10% cashmere, and 10% polyamide, providing warmth, softness, and durability. With a yardage of 320 meters per 50-gram ball, the total yardage available is approximately 640 meters, offering ample fiber for this project.

The recommended needle size is 5 mm, which produces a gauge of 16 stitches and 48 rows over 10 × 10 centimeters when worked in brioche rib. Achieving accurate gauge is essential for this pattern, as the brioche rib's elasticity and the specific decreasing sequences depend on consistent stitch and row measurements. Knitters are advised to work a gauge swatch measuring approximately 12 × 12 centimeters using the recommended needles, yarn, and brioche rib stitch pattern before beginning the hat.

Construction Summary

The hat begins with a cast-on of 76 stitches and is worked in brioche rib for 12 centimeters from the cast-on edge. The crown is then shaped through three distinct decrease sections, each followed by multiple rest rows to allow the brioche texture to develop. The first shaping section reduces the stitch count from 76 to 58 stitches, the second from 58 to 40 stitches, and the third from 40 to 22 stitches. Final decreases bring the remaining stitches down to 7, which are then closed using a yarn tail drawn through the remaining stitches. The seam is closed, and all ends are carefully woven in to complete the hat.