Shibui Knits Mix No. 32 Hat Knitting Pattern

Shibui Knits Mix No. 32: Pebble Hat

What Is Being Made

Shibui Knits Mix No. 32 is a seamless, bottom-up knit hat designed by Shellie Anderson. This cap features a finished circumference of 21 inches and stands approximately 9 inches tall, making it a versatile one-size design suitable for a range of head sizes. The hat showcases visual texture through welted ridges that create an interesting contrast against neat stockinette stitch decreases, resulting in a sophisticated and modern appearance.

Techniques Used

This design employs several key knitting techniques to achieve its distinctive look:

• Seamless construction: The hat is worked in the round from the bottom up, eliminating the need for seaming and creating a continuous, polished garment.
• Welted ridges: The brim features alternating purl and knit rows that create horizontal welted texture, with the pattern repeated twice to establish a strong visual foundation.
• Stripes: The tri-color version incorporates color changes at strategic points, with each color section featuring its own welted ridge pattern before transitioning to stockinette stitch.
• Crown shaping: The hat utilizes a centered double decrease (CDD) technique—slipping 2 stitches as if to knit 2 together, knitting 1, then passing the slipped stitches over—to create symmetrical decreases that shape the crown.
• Marker placement: Strategic stitch markers divide the crown into 10 sections of 11 stitches each, ensuring evenly distributed decreases throughout the shaping process.

Stitches Used

The pattern employs fundamental knitting stitches executed with precision:

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The primary stitch throughout most of the hat, creating a smooth, classic fabric that showcases the yarn's delicate texture.
• Garter stitch: Created through the alternating purl and knit rows in the welted sections, producing horizontal ridges that add visual and tactile interest.
• Centered double decrease (CDD): A decorative decrease used during crown shaping that decreases 2 stitches while maintaining a centered, symmetrical appearance.

Materials and Construction Details

Shibui Knits Mix No. 32 is crafted using Shibui Pebble, a luxurious yarn composed of 48% recycled silk, 36% fine merino wool, and 16% cashmere. The yarn is worked with two strands held together throughout the entire project, ensuring delicate texture and lightweight wearability despite the hat's structure. This double-strand technique creates a refined fabric that drapes beautifully while maintaining shape.

The pattern requires 2 skeins of yarn for the single-color version (shown in Bordeaux) or 1 skein each of three colors for the tri-color version (shown in Mineral, Clay, and Ivory). Each skein contains 224 yards of yarn in a 25-gram weight.

Needles and Tools

The hat is constructed using two sizes of circular needles to manage gauge and stitch count effectively:

• Size 3 (3.25 mm) circular needle: Used for the initial cast-on and welted brim sections, creating a slightly tighter gauge that helps establish structure.
• Size 4 (3.5 mm) circular needle: Employed after the welted sections to achieve the working gauge and accommodate the stockinette stitch body and crown shaping.
• Size 4 (3.5 mm) double-pointed needles (dpns): Available for the final crown decreases when the stitch count becomes too small for circular needles.

Additional tools include stitch markers (both locking and removable varieties), a tapestry needle for weaving in ends, and blocking equipment to achieve the specified gauge of 21 stitches and 36 rounds over 4 inches in stockinette stitch with two strands of Pebble held together.

Skill Level

Rated as Skill Level 2 (Easy), Shibui Knits Mix No. 32 is accessible to knitters with basic experience in working in the round and executing simple decreases. The straightforward construction and clear stitch marker placement make this an excellent project for developing proficiency with seamless hat construction.