Park Hat Knitting Pattern

TriBeCa Park Hat in Malabrigo Rasta

What Is Being Made

The TriBeCa Park Hat is a beginner-friendly knitted hat designed by Sarah Luse. This classic style hat is worked in the round from the brim upward and features prominent chunky cable details throughout the body. The finished hat is topped with a decorative pompom, adding a playful accent to the design. The hat measures approximately 16 inches in circumference when unstretched and stands 8½ inches in length, making it a versatile fit for most head sizes.

Techniques Used

This pattern employs several fundamental and intermediate knitting techniques suitable for knitters developing their skills. The hat is constructed using the circular knitting method, worked in continuous rounds from the brim to the crown. Knitters will practice cable stitches, which are a signature feature of this design, creating textured columns of twisted stitches that run vertically around the hat body. The pattern includes left-leaning and right-leaning cable crosses (abbreviated as LPC and RPC), which add visual interest and dimension to the fabric. As the hat progresses toward the crown, decreasing techniques are employed to shape the top, gradually reducing stitch count to close the opening. The pattern also requires transitioning from circular needles to double-pointed needles (dpns) when stitches no longer fit comfortably on the circular needle during crown shaping. Finally, knitters will create a pompom using the cardboard circle method, a traditional technique for adding a finished flourish to the hat.

Stitches Used

The TriBeCa Park Hat utilizes a focused selection of essential knitting stitches:

• Knit stitch (k) — the fundamental stitch forming the base fabric
• Purl stitch (p) — used to create reverse stockinette sections that frame the cables
• Stockinette stitch — the primary fabric texture, created by alternating knit and purl rows in the round
• Cable stitches — specifically 3-stitch and 4-stitch left and right crosses (3-st LC, 3-st RPC, 3-st LPC, 4-st LC) that create the dimensional twisted effects
• Slip, slip, knit (ssk) — a left-leaning decrease used during crown shaping to reduce stitches evenly

Materials

The TriBeCa Park Hat is designed to be knitted with Malabrigo Rasta yarn, a wool yarn available in 5.3-ounce hanks, each containing approximately 90 yards of yardage. The pattern calls for one hank in colorway #707 Melon. This yarn weight and fiber content create a fabric with excellent stitch definition, allowing the cable details to stand out prominently.

The pattern requires two circular needles in different sizes: size 11 (8mm) and size 13 (9mm), each 16 inches long, plus one set of four size 13 (9mm) double-pointed needles for working the crown shaping. A cable needle is essential for manipulating stitches during cable crosses. Additional notions include a stitch marker for tracking the beginning of each round and two pieces of cardboard, each measuring 4 by 4 inches, used to construct the pompom. The recommended gauge is 10 stitches and 16 rounds to 4 inches over stockinette stitch using the larger needles, which helps ensure the finished hat achieves the intended measurements.