Short Row Hat Knitting Pattern

Short Row Hat in Plymouth Yarn De Aire

What is Being Made

The Short Row Hat is a classic adult-sized knit hat designed to fit small and large adult head sizes. This downloadable knitting pattern from Plymouth Yarn produces a finished circumference of 18 inches for the small size or 21 inches for the large size. The hat is constructed using a short row shaping technique that creates a structured crown, finished with a decorative pompom at the top.

Techniques Used

This pattern employs the short row technique as its primary construction method. Short rows allow knitters to add shaping and depth to a garment by working back and forth across only a portion of the stitches, rather than across the entire row. This creates the three-dimensional crown of the hat without requiring complex decreases.

The pattern uses the wrap and turn (W&t) method to manage the yarn transitions at the turning points of each short row. This technique prevents holes from forming where the yarn changes direction. Additionally, the pattern incorporates the Kitchener stitch, also known as grafting, to seamlessly join the two ends of the hat together, creating an invisible seam.

Construction begins with a temporary cast-on method using scrap yarn and a crochet hook. This provisional cast-on allows stitches to be picked up along a chain and later unraveled, providing live stitches that are grafted closed at the end. The hat is finished with a hand-made pompom attached to the crown.

Stitches Used

The pattern is worked almost entirely in garter stitch, which is created by knitting every row on both the right and wrong sides. Garter stitch produces a textured, reversible fabric with horizontal ridges and is ideal for hats because it lies flat and provides good structure. The only other stitch technique used is the Kitchener stitch for grafting the seam.

Materials

This pattern requires Plymouth Yarn De Aire yarn, with one 100-gram skein in color 146 Cream being sufficient for either size. The yarn is worked on US Size 15 (10mm) straight knitting needles. The gauge is 9 stitches and 16 rows over 4 inches in garter stitch on the specified needle size. Additional materials include scrap yarn for the provisional cast-on, a large crochet hook for creating the temporary chain, and a tapestry needle for grafting and finishing.

Pattern Notes

The pattern is written for the smallest size with larger sizes indicated in parentheses. Finished circumference is designed to be approximately 2 inches smaller than actual head measurement to ensure a proper fit. The short row shaping is repeated multiple times to build the hat's height, with 6 additional repeats for the large size compared to the small size, resulting in 72 total rows for small and 84 total rows for large.