Salzburg Hat Pattern

I finally got around to writing up the pattern for my “Jagged Little Pill” hat, which has been renamed the “Salzburg Hat”.

Why Salzburg? Because it was inspired by a hat a friend was wearing while we were on vacation in Austria. It wasn’t a knit hat, but I liked the shape of it, so I created my own version.

This pattern is provided “as is”. This is more of a “how I did it” than a full-fledged pattern, so I’m sorry if some parts are a little difficult to follow, especially with the grafting and the method of attaching the crown to the sides of the hat, but I didn’t take clear notes or photographs since it was originally just intended as a hat for myself.

The instructions are written for just one size, which I would consider a woman’s small to medium. But because of the construction of the hat, it would not be difficult to make it larger or smaller.

Materials

• Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Moss Heather (77525), 2 skeins. The actual amount I used was less than 1.5 skeins – my finished hat weighs 4.5 oz (128 grams).
• Needles: US 8 (5 mm) straight or circular for sides of hat, and double points for crown (or magic loop or two circulars instead if you prefer)
• Crochet hook, size H
• Yarn needle for darning in ends

Gauge:

20 stitches in Brioche Stitch = 6.5″, after blocking.

This number is not critical – you can adjust the number of stitches if necessary, as long as you use an even number of stitches. The finished width of the rectangle forming the sides of the hat should be about 6 to 6.5 inches for a women’s small-to-medium head.  (The bottom edge of the hat is folded up to make a brim, so the actual hat height is about 5″.)

Abbreviations:

k = knit
p = purl
st = stitch
R = round
kfb = knit through the front and back loop
RLI = Right Lifted Increase

Pattern Notes – Please Read Before Starting!

The hat is knit using two strands of yarn held together throughout.

The main body of the hat is knit as a long rectangle in Brioche Stitch, then seamed into a tube to form the sides. To change the size of the hat, just knit the rectangle to the desired length. Since the hat will stretch out a little with wear, I suggest about ½” less than the measurement around your head (over the ears).

The crown (top) of the hat is knit in the round by starting in the center and working outward, forming a flat circle. The live loops of the last round are then attached to the sides of the hat with a crocheted slip stitch. Note: If you prefer, you can pick up stitches around crown and knit towards center, working decrease rounds instead of increase rounds. However, the advantage of working it from the center out is that you can more easily modify the size of the top if you find that it is too large or too small. Because of differences in hat size and gauge, working from the outer edge to the center may require more or fewer knitting rounds, and/or slightly different decreases in order to keep the top flat. For that reason, I really recommend the center-out approach.

I’ve provided two versions of the crown – one is plain knit, and the other has a bulls-eye pattern of knit and purl rounds.

Important Notes on Seaming:

If you seam the ends of the hat together using traditional seaming methods, you will end up with a thick ridge along the seam on the wrong side of the fabric. Since the bottom edge of the hat is turned up, that ridge will be visible on the outside along the turned-up edge.

In order to avoid that, I started with a provisional cast-on, and then wove the live loops of each end together. There’s still an obvious seam, but it doesn’t have a bulky ridge, and looks pretty much the same on the inside as on the outside.  This method is not for the faint-of-heart, and I don’t recommend it unless you are very comfortable with grafting (Kitchener stitch). I couldn’t find any instructions for grafting Brioche Stitch (if it’s possible to do correctly, it’s quite tricky and would probably involve two rows of grafting), so I just sort of made it up as I went along. Unfortunately, I did not really take notes of what I did, and can’t explain it in detail – but basically this is what I did:  First I threaded a long tail of yarn on a needle as if I were going to Kitchener it. First I wove the starting and ending live loops together on one side of the fabric, trying to follow the stitch pattern as well as I could, but without removing any of the stitches from the needles  – then I flipped the tube inside out and did the same thing on the other side. The important thing is to be sure that you weave your working yarn through every stitch on both needles, so that nothing comes loose. If you try this, I would recommend putting a life-line thread through the stitches on each end before starting, since fixing dropped stitches in Brioche is not fun.

It might also be possible to mark the point where the bottom of the brim turns up, and seam the part that turns up from the right side, and the rest of the hat from the wrong side, so that the seam is always hidden. I haven’t tried that, so I don’t know how well it would work.

Pattern Instructions

Main body:

Please read the pattern notes above before beginning, to determine whether you want to start with a provisional cast-on.

With double strand of yarn and straight or circular needles, cast on 20 stitches (or the number needed for your desired hat height). Use a provisional cast-on if you plan to graft/weave the seam, or a traditional cast-on (long-tail is fine) if you plan to sew a regular seam.

Work in brioche stitch until you reach 21.5″ or your desired hat circumference.

Bind off if seaming traditionally, or leave the live stitches on the needle if grafting.

Seam or graft the short ends together to form a tube.

Count the number of stitches around the top edge of the hat. You will need this number for the final increase round of the crown (round 18). In my case, I had 86 stitches (this actually represents 172 rows of knitting, since it takes two rows of knitting to produce one full Brioche stitch).

Crown:

Two versions are provided for the crown. The first one is plain knit, and the other is a bull’s eye pattern of knit and purl rounds. Choose whichever you wish.

You may need to add additional rounds of plain knitting at the end to reach the desired size, especially if you are making the hat larger than I did. The crown should be the same diameter as the opening of the hat, or slightly smaller. (Mine was approximately 7 inches across.)

Plain Crown	Bull’s Eye Crown

Version 1 – Plain Crown:

Cast on 6 sts using Emily Ocker’s circular cast on.
R1: * RLI, k2; repeat from * around (9 st)
R2: * RLI, k1; repeat from * around (18 st)
R3: knit
R4: * RLI, K2; repeat from * around (27 st)
R5: knit
R6: knit
R7: * k3, RLI; repeat from * around (36 st)
R8: knit
R9: knit
R10: *k2, RLI; repeat from * around (54 st)
R11: knit
R12: knit
R13: knit
R14: k1, * RLI, k3; repeat from * around to last 2 sts; end with RLI, k2 (72 st)
R15: knit
R16: knit
R17: knit
R18: Increase evenly around to the number of stitches around the top edge of the hat.

For my hat, I needed to increase to 86, which I did as follows:
(k4, RLI, k1) 14 times, end k2 (86 st).
Increase as evenly as possible – there is a good calculator for increasing evenly here.

R19: knit
Do NOT break the working yarn.

Version 2 – Bull’s Eye Crown:

Cast on 9 sts using Emily Ocker’s circular cast on.
R1: knit
R2: kfb around (18 st)
R3: knit
R4: purl
R5: knit
R6: kfb around (36 st)
R7: knit
R8: purl
R9: knit
R10: knit
R11: knit
R12: purl
R13: kfb around (72 st)
R14: knit
R15: knit
R16: purl
R17: knit
R18: Increase evenly around to the number of stitches around the top edge of the hat.

For my hat, I needed to increase to 86, which I did as follows:
(k4, RLI, k1) 14 times, end k2 (86 st).
Increase as evenly as possible – there is a good calculator for increasing evenly here.

R19: knit
Do NOT break the working yarn.

 Attach Crown to Main Body

Using a crochet hook, attach crown to top edge of hat using slip stitch as follows:

Insert the crochet hook through the first loop on the left-hand needle as if to knit, slipping the stitch off the needle and onto the hook. Then insert the hook through a stitch on the top edge of the hat, starting at the seam. Draw up a loop with the working yarn and pull it through both loops on the hook.

Insert the crochet hook through the next loop on the left-hand needle, slipping it off the needle. Insert the hook through the next loop on the top edge of the hat (to the left of the one you just used). Draw up a loop with the working yarn and pull it through all three loops on the hook. Repeat this process around the hat until you have attached all of the crown stitches to the hat.

Before breaking the yarn, I would suggest trying the hat on to make sure that the crown is the correct size. If it’s too big, the hat will flare out at the top. If it’s too small, the hat will lose the pillbox shape and look more like a beanie. In either case, you can undo the crochet seam and either add some rounds of plain knitting (if it’s too small), or take out a few rounds (if it’s too big), then re-seam. Note: If you need to remove rounds to make the crown smaller, I would suggest removing some of the plain rounds prior to the last increase round, so that you always end with at least one plain round of knit.

Cut the yarn, leaving a tail long enough for weaving in, and pull it through the last loop on the hook to secure it.

Finishing

Pull the tail of the crown’s cast-on tightly to close the hole, if necessary. Weave in all ends.