Knit Hats for the Family – My All-Time Favorite Pattern

Well, I’ve now knit a total of 9 hats from this pattern and am about to cast on yet another. I guess you could say that I enjoy it.

As a paid pattern, the Musselburgh by Ysolda Teague is a worthy investment to include in your library.

You can find it here on the website or on Ravelry. I’ve paused my paid-for pattern sprint for 2022, but if I didn’t already purchase this one in 2021, I’d be itching to break that commitment for sure.

I try to knit things that are useful and will be well-loved, and this. Is. It. There are so many variations you can accomplish with this one hat. Let’s dive in to some of the construction (without revealing pattern specifics of course), so that you can see how easy and wonderful it really is.

There are several different yarn weights that you could use, from fingering to DK. I used KnitPicks Stroll for all of the Musselburgh hats I’ve finished so far (shocker), which is a superwash merino fingering weight sock yarn. I used a US size 3/3.25 mm needle for each hat.

Here’s my project page on Ravelry.

Construction of the Hat

First, you start with a pinhole cast-on. There are a few recommendations listed in the pattern. I choose to use this one and my KnitPicks Caspain Wood DPNs set. It can be fiddly at first if you aren’t used to working with DPNs, but I eventually got the hang of it. Practice makes perfect! There’s also an option to use magic loop, so you’re covered if that’s your preferred method.

Once you cast on, you start increasing the amount of stitches until you have an inch or more of knitted fabric. Then you can grab a ruler and figure out what gauge you’re knitting at. The pattern includes a table to make things simple and easy to figure out. You find your gauge number and follow across the table to the corresponding amount of increases/stitches for the size hat you’re aiming for.

This is the magic number for you to continue increasing to. After that, it’s miles and miles of stockinette stitch, decreases, and before you know it, you’re done and have yourself a hat!

Things I love about this pattern:

• Simple and easy to use
• Lots of sizes
• Versatile – can use different yarns and needles
• $8 USD to get the pattern and use it over and over and over again

I’ve seen knitters use all kinds of yarns and colorways in their hats. It’s completely reversible, so the sky is the limit. Stripes, different colors on each side, so many different things you can do to give your hat the look that you desire.

Now that I’ve got a ton of hats in Stroll, I’m testing out yet another Musselburgh in KnitPicks Palette using the Victorian colorway. By the way, I just love KnitPicks yarn. I’m not sponsored. But hey, that would be super cool in the future!