Valley Yarns Delmare Hat and Scarf Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Delmare Hat and Scarf

Overview

The Delmare Hat and Scarf set, designed by Sara Delaney, is a coordinated knitting project featuring a colorful striped hat and matching scarf. This advanced beginner pattern showcases an exaggerated basketweave stitch pattern as the focal point, complemented by bright and cheerful garter stitch stripes in multiple colors. An oversized pom-pom adds additional colorful charm to the finished hat.

What Is Being Made

This pattern includes two coordinated pieces:

• Hat: A finished size of 20 inches around by 7.5 inches deep, designed to be worked in the round
• Scarf: A finished size of 13 inches wide by 64 inches long, designed to be worked flat

Techniques Used

The Delmare set employs several intermediate knitting techniques appropriate for advanced beginners:

• Worked in the round: The hat is constructed using circular needles and double-pointed needles to create a seamless, tubular fabric
• Worked flat: The scarf is created using flat knitting methods, worked back and forth on circular needles
• Cable and basketweave patterns: An exaggerated basketweave stitch serves as the central design element, created through alternating knit and purl stitches in specific sequences
• Stripes: Bright color changes are introduced through strategic yarn color switching, particularly in the garter stitch border of the hat
• Decreasing: The hat crown features multiple decrease rounds using sk2p (slip, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over) and k2tog (knit 2 together) techniques to shape the top

Stitches Used

The pattern utilizes fundamental and intermediate stitches:

• Garter stitch: Created by knitting every row when working flat, or alternating knit and purl rounds when working in the round. This stitch forms the decorative striped border on the hat
• Stockinette stitch variations: Knit and purl stitches are combined to create the basketweave pattern
• Decrease stitches: sk2p and k2tog are used to shape the hat crown and reduce stitches from 64 down to 8 stitches for grafting

Materials

The Delmare Hat and Scarf pattern calls for specific materials to achieve the intended finished product:

• Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky, a blend of 85% wool and 15% alpaca, with each 100-gram skein yielding 108 yards. The pattern requires 5 skeins total: 1 skein in 01 Cream (main color for the hat), 1 skein in 48 Parakeet (contrast color 1), 1 skein in 32 Lime (contrast color 2), and 1 skein in 29 Turquoise (contrast color 3), with the remaining yardage used for the scarf
• Needles: US Size 10.5 (6.50mm) needles in multiple configurations—a 16-inch circular needle, double-pointed needles, and two 60-inch circular needles—or size as needed to obtain gauge
• Gauge: 14 stitches and 10 rows over 4 inches in pattern, worked on US 10.5 needles

Pattern Details

The hat begins with 64 cast-on stitches worked in the round. The first 2 inches feature a garter stitch border with a repeating color sequence: one round in main color cream, one round in parakeet, one round in lime, one round in cream, one round in turquoise, then the sequence repeats. This creates bright, cheerful horizontal stripes. Following the striped border, the hat continues in cream only and introduces the exaggerated basketweave pattern, which alternates between knit and purl stitches in specific arrangements across 20 rounds. The crown shaping begins at round 21 with successive decrease rounds that reduce the stitch count to 8 stitches, which are then grafted together to close the top.

The scarf is worked flat over 33 cast-on stitches and measures