A while ago we chatted in my knitting group about brioche knitting and I found it quite amazing that so many accomplished knitters admire the technique, but that many had never worked it. Some found it intimidating, others got the basics of the technique, but found patterning hard, some had never heard it. So the same day I started swatching and showed my progress around - and the idea for a new hat pattern was born.
And what better yarn could I have picked than Mechita, a fingering weight yarn by Malabrigo Yarns? As many of you know I have a really soft spot for their yarns and even DH knows that the answer 'MMM!' when he asks what yarn I'm knitting with tells him the brand. (It's on my bucket list to go to Uruguay one day to visit their factory, but that's another subject.)
Anyway, Mechita is a single-ply merino yarn in fingering weight, with a yardage of approximately 385 m (420 yds) per 100g, it is oh-so-soft and available in many (I think more than 80) beautiful colours. I worked my samples in Poipu (above) and Sirenas (below) and I think the yarn works perfectly for this pattern.
The hat is knit from the brim to the top. The brim is worked in twisted rib and the body of the hat in an easy to memorize brioche pattern. While the pattern looks like there are cables, there aren't, but the 'junctions' are worked with a techique where three stitches are knit out of three stitches; explained in the pattern. The crown shaping, as you can see in the picture above, is done in pattern.
Depending how many repeats of the pattern are worked, the hat can be a snug beanie or can get a more slouchy look (as in the first picture), especially when embellished with an oversized pompom.
The unisex pattern includes four size: XS, S, M, L and XL with a finished circumference of approximately 43.5 (46.5, 50, 53.25, 56.75) cm [17 (18.25, 19.75, 21, 22.25)"] and requires one skein of fingering weight yarn. Knitters can choose to work the brioche pattern from charts or written instructions.
As of today, the Junction Hat pattern is available from my Ravelry store, here. I hope you'll enjoy knitting it as much as I did designing it.
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