Come join me for a Fiberside Chat!

Throughout the pandemic Longmont Yarn Shoppe have been hosting Fiberside Chats, bringing yarn shops, designers and teachers together, for regular zoom chats and discussions.

On May 7th at 11am MDT, 6pm BST and 7pm CEST, I’ll be their special guest! You can book tickets by clicking here.

Image description: me in my studio, grinning, as our tabby cat Mina comes into the frame.

Longmont Yarn Shoppe work together with 32 yarn stores across the US and Canada for these chats. When you book tickets you can choose to buy them through your local LYS if they’re on the list, or choose another LYS to support. I think this is such a great way for yarn shops to work together and support each other!

Tickets are $20 each and the proceeds are split between the organisers, yarn stores and special guests. The more folks attend the talk, the more we each earn for our time.

The talk is held via zoom and there’ll be a recording made available for booked attendees for one week after the event, should you not be able to make that time slot for any reason. So you can book in confidence knowing you’ll still be able to watch it later.

My Scourie design

My Dulcie pattern

My Rhinebeck Hat

My Ruschia deisgn

And my talk? Sideways knit Hats!

These are my favourite Hats to design and most of my best selling patterns are sideways knits. Yet I know that many folks haven’t yet taken the leap as the construction method is a whole new thing - it may be the technical aspects, it may be that they’re a little intimidating. Or it may be that folks don’t kinda get what they’re about.

In this talk I want to demystify this construction method and show you it’s potential, why I love it, and why it’s worth your time. So many knitters have told me that they were really unsure about trying a sideways knit Hat but once they took the leap, they had so much fun and learnt so much, and went on to make many more sideways Hats. Some have even told me they wouldn’t go back to vertically knit Hats, they enjoyed my patterns that much!

I’ll talk through a number of samples, show you deconstructed Hats and how they look on the needles, and talk about the differences between the different construction methods. I’ll talk about how the stitch patterns and fabric properties change when we turn our work through 90°, and how we can use that to our advantage. I’ll also touch on the techniques used and why they’re so useful. Honestly, there’s so much I can share so if you’ve any questions ahead of the talk now would be a good time to let me know so that I can try and tailor it a little.

Fancy joining me on May 7th? You can find all you need to know and book your tickets by clicking here. Tickets are $20 each. Hope to see you there!

Hat talk - all about the Brim

All of the free patterns and tutorials on this website are supported by my amazing Patreons! If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be able to continue to produce or host freebies. We'd love to have you join us and in return, you get exclusive behind-the-scenes material, member-only discounts and early access to new free content. Membership starts at $1 per month. You can also say thanks for the freebie via the Tip Jar.

The humble Brim is one part of a Hat that is most crucial to fit, and it’s also the part of the Hat that sees the most variation, both in terminology and style. In this article I’m going to talk through the different types of Brims you may find on woolly Hats, how they may affect fit, and my thoughts on terminology.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Well, when we talk about the Brim of a Hat we nearly always do start at the beginning. It may not be the beginning when we’re knitting or crocheting and rather than derail this post I’ll send you towards my article on the different types of Hat construction methods! But essentially, the Brim is the bit that finishes the edge of a Hat. It sits around the head and it can do that in different ways.

What I refer to as the ‘Brim’ of a Hat may also be known as a ‘band’ or a ‘cuff’, and I’ve no doubt there’s other variations to the name too. ‘Cuff’ sounds a little odd to me, you find those on sleeves. ‘Band’ doesn’t quite sound right either because it seems to imply that it’s a solid or even separate section, although it makes more sense to me than ‘cuff’. There isn’t any consensus on what this part of the Hat should be called, unlike the Crown, but even there folks have pre-conceived ideas of how a Crown should be shaped or fitted.

Formal millinery will have different styles and characteristics attached to the different parts of a Hat’s anatomy yet given that a woolly Hat is made of quite different and usually far less structured material, the different parts end up serving a different purpose or having different properties. Formal millinery - and I won’t say ‘traditional’ millinery because traditions are different things to different people - doesn’t take into account the properties of knit or crochet Hats; in fact it invariably doesn’t consider woolly Hats to be millinery at all, even though the word itself literally means ‘Hat maker’. I’m not convinced that rigid adherence to it’s terminology and definitions is helpful when our materials, and their purposes, not to mention how we create and structure our woolly Hats, are so very different. Disclaimer: I’ve completed some studies in millinery as part of a larger textiles degree but I’m not a qualified milliner.

So here’s the thing - the part of a woolly Hat that I’m talking about today isn’t just decorative; it doesn’t always project away from the head, sometimes it hugs it. It needs to finish the Hat and provide support; it often needs to protect the Hat during wear, as well as the wearer. It’s crucial to sizing and it’s the only part of a woolly Hat that needs to actually fit around the head. And given how we have a wide range of finishes that we can add to this edge, not to mention how I tend to mix up styles and construction methods, ‘Brim’ is the best all-purpose word in my opinion - I hope my reasons for this become clear as I talk through a few examples. Besides, a ‘Brim’ is what I’ve always known it as, because regional variations are a thing.

And honestly, it’s OK if you disagree! You’ll find that many designers and publishers use different terminology. My point is is that there isn’t any one definition or terminology that’s correct, not in the woolly Hat world.

The ‘Castiel’ slouch Hat with a ribbed Brim

The ‘Thrifter Beanie’ with a folded ribbed Brim

The ‘Tebe Slouch’ Hat with a folded picot Brim

So then, some examples of Brims!

The first image to the above left shows my Castiel pattern. It has a ribbed Brim that’s often seen on woolly Hats. Bear in mind that it doesn’t have to be ribbed, not in the slightest. But ribbing does the job of providing enough negative ease to keep our Hat on rather well. I think it’s the use of ribbing on a Hat like this that lends itself to the use of the term ‘cuff’.

The second image is my Thrifter Beanie pattern. This one has a folded Brim and just like the first example, the Brim doesn’t have to be ribbed before it’s folded. When it comes to woolly Hat talk ‘folded’ usually implies that it has double or triple fabric. That could be achieved by working this section of the Hat extra long and physically folding it up, or or it could be achieved by permanently joining the fold in place, such as in the third image which is my Tebe Slouch pattern. This one is worked in stocking stitch and features a decorative picot edge to the folded Brim.

The ‘Cabled Cap’ Hat with a rolled Brim

The ‘Rosalind’ Hat with a garter stitch Brim

The ‘Freccia’ Hat with an integrated cabled Brim

Next up we have my Cabled Cap pattern which features a rolled Brim. It sits away from the head a little yet it’s created in exactly the same way as a ribbed Brim, just in a different stitch. When it comes to this part of the Hat we really lean into the properties of certain types of knit fabric - this edge may not be ribbing yet it still fits snuggly and provides a defined and structured edge to our Hat, with just the right amount of stretch. It’s a rather flattering one to wear, too.

Then there’s my Rosalind pattern which has a garter stitch Brim. Garter stitch is rather good for finishing a Hat as it’s soft around the head, has plenty of stretch, yet doesn’t pull in quite as harshly as rib when more negative ease is factored in. Garter stitch is also a fantastic canvas for other decorative features such as slipped stitches, which provide not only detail but structure too.

There may look like there’s no defined edge to my Freccia pattern yet there is; the cable pattern is different near the edge, there’s more changing between knits and purls which is what creates the elasticity and support in ribbing. So it has a Brim, but it’s more integrated - and this is a method I use a lot in my patterns, and not just with cables.

The ‘Elevation’ Hat with a twisted rib wedged Brim

The ‘Skelter’ Hat with a garter stitch rear split Brim

The ‘Campello’ Hat with a sideways garter stitch split Brim

Next up is my Elevation pattern. Now, this is a ribbed Brim, but it’s also a wedged Brim. A wedged Brim is one that’s wider, or deeper, at one point than another. They’re super comfy to wear, especially on slouch Hats, as the lower depth at the back avoids the fabric bulking up. Furthermore, the ribbing is twisted ribbing which I love - it functions beautifully and the twisted stitches provide much needed structure and prevent the Brim from stretching out too much. In one by one ribbing the stitches can look a little saggy as the tension between the knits and purls change - that all goes when we twist the stitches, and we usually only need to twist the knits.

Skelter is an example of a split Brim. It’s simply a Brim that isn’t completely circular and in this case it’s a garter stitch Brim with the split worn at the back to accommodate long hair or ponytails. It’s a really easy style to wear and similar to a wedged Brim, it helps stop a Hat riding up. Sometimes I’ll mix up a split Brim with a wedge Brim and with those the deeper end of the wedge is worn at the back with the split right down the middle, providing a little more warmth to the neck.

Campello is another example of a split Brim, except the split is worn at the front to create a more vintage style. It features a modular construction and it’s Brim is also knit sideways, i.e. in a different direction to the rest of the Hat. Sometimes Hats like this may be asymmetrical and have one side of the split Brim deeper than the other. Or they may be worn off-centre. Their advantage is that they allow for a deeper Hat to be worn around the neck and ears, keeping us warm, without it sitting too low across the face.

The ‘Dutrieu’ Hat with an symmetrical decorative Brim

The ‘Dulcie’ Hat with a sideways all-over rolled Brim

The ‘Bella’ Hat with a sideways all-over rolled Brim

Following on from split Brims and folding up the fabric for detail, Dutrieu features an asymmetrical Brim that’s most definitely decorative - and it can be, because the body of the Hat is entirely worked in garter stitch so it has plenty of structure and support. Yet despite the Brim being knitted as an appendage to the Hat, it doesn’t quite sit flat with, or away from, the head.

Dulcie ventures more into Brims that sit away from the head. It’s a rolled Brim but that’s more about the property of the fabric than anything else. It’s shaping means that the Brim isn’t required to hold the Hat on the head, at least not all of it, but structurally it’s not quite a wide Brim yet it is an all-over Brim.

Bella is another of my patterns where the Brim sits away from the head, except the Body of the Hat is a different shape to that in Dulcie. It’s not shaped or created in the same way as the rolled Brim on the Cabled Cap either. I explain further in my Hat styles guide about how we can mix and match different attributes of a Hat, but there’s no rule that says a certain Brim style has to fit with a certain Body style.

The ‘Corbelle’ Hat with a bucket style Brim

The ‘Erica’ Hat with a peaked Brim

The ‘Daisy’ Hat with a wide lace Brim

Although it doesn’t look like it, Corbelle is structurally what’s known as a ‘bucket Hat’. Further more, it’s Brim is folded too, for extra structure. I’ve been meaning forever to get better photos of this one, but the reason I’ve selected it is because despite the fact that the Brim sits away from the head when the Hat is flat, as soon as it’s put onto a head that it’s too small for, the knitted fabric stretches out and becomes fitted. It’s an example of how what would be considered a distinctive Brim in formal millinery isn’t always because of the properties of knitting. And of course it’s a helpful reminder that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to Hats!

Erica is one of a few Woolly Wormhead patterns that feature a peaked Brim. This Brim style does tend to be known by different things regionally, and how it’s known may also depend on other aspects of the Hat, such as it’s closeness around the head. I’ve always known them as ‘peaked Brims’ and when Ravelry first brought in the style categories I had absolutely no idea what a ‘bill’ was, and honestly still find it strange to this day.

As far as I know ‘peaked Brim’ is rather English and ‘billed Brim’ is American but I suspect there’s more differences than that; one being that a peaked Brim doesn’t determine how the rest of the Hat looks or fits. Again, this is another reason I think that it’s hard to apply not just formal millinery terminology to woolly Hats, but Hat styles or terms in general. Not only do the properties of knitting, or crochet, change just about everything within a Hats’ structure and fit, but we can mix and match different attributes and elements to our liking because we’re making everything, including the fabric, from scratch.

Daisy is a Hat pattern that fits more closely with formal millinery or non-yarny Hat styles. To some folk, this is the definition of a Brimmed Hat. I’ve always known this style as a ‘wide Brimmed’ Hat and that’s how you’ll find it referred to on this website and within my workshops, books and patterns. Because, well, the Brim is wide! One thing you’ll notice with this style is that the Body and Crown of the Hat is snug and well fitted - because the Brim sits perpendicular to the head we need the rest of the Hat to make up for what Brim functions are missing i.e. fitting well and staying on the head. That said, the Brim still fits around the head because it has to; it just doesn’t offer the same kind of support.

The ‘Molly’ Hat with a wide lace Brim

The ‘Cornice’ Hat with integrated earflaps in the Brim

The ‘Karenin’ aviator Hat with a folded up Brim

My Molly pattern is structurally almost identical to my Daisy pattern, yet it doesn’t have any instructions to wire the Brim. You can of course do so should you wish, but in my mind the absence of the wire doesn’t make it any different style wise - it’s a wide Brimmed Hat, just the same, with a close fitting Body. Molly and Daisy are both knit sideways, too, so that Brim isn’t worked separately, it’s worked concurrently.

Cornice is a pattern that challenges what this part of a Hat is all about. That deep garter section is serving the exact same function as we might expect of a Brim - it finishes the Hat and it provides well fitting edge - yet it also has integrated earflaps.

Karenin is another pattern that challenges how a Hat’s anatomy could be described, how it’s parts may be defined. It’s Brim doesn’t feature integrated earflaps but does cover the ears and neck. It’s not quite a split Brim like we saw with Campello but it functions in a similar way. It’s a classic aviator style, yet if it wasn’t for the folded up section of the Brim at the front it’d be considered a helmet style.

The ‘Encircle’ Hat with a folded sideways Brim

The ‘Korra’ Hat with a sideways garter stitch Brim

The ‘Arkanoid’ Hat with a tiny folded Brim

Encircle is another Hat featuring a modular construction. It has a tube, a double fabric strip, worked sideways with the body worked upwards from there. When I hear the word ‘band’ used with Hats this is the sort of thing that comes to mind - it’s literally a band applied to an edge.

The Brim in Korra is more obvious than in many of my sideways knit Hats as it’s worked in a different colour, yet it’s not worked separately at all - it’s not worked at the beginning of the knitting, or at the end, and neither is it an applied edge worked as a separate piece of fabric. This is the joy of sideways Hat knitting where we work a little bit of the Brim, a little bit of the Body and a little bit of the Crown in every row. As soon as we turn garter stitch on it’s side it’s properties change and it behaves as a one by one ribbing would.

Arkanoid doesn’t appear to have a Brim at all, except it does, albeit a tiny sliver of one. It’s actually a folded Brim and on this Hat the Brim itself doesn’t need to provide a great deal of structure or support because the ribbed stitch pattern that lends itself to the Hat’s name provides that for us. There are quite a few Woolly Wormhead patterns where the Brim seems insignificant or missing altogether and it’ll be because the Body does the work that a Brim would usually do.

…………………………………………………………………………

This isn’t by any means a definitive list of the Brim types you’ll find on woolly Hats, but I hope it gives you some idea of the possibilities! I really like to delve into the finer details and I cover more about Brim types, amongst other things, in my Hat Extras series.

To the wider discussion about what is and isn’t a Brim I hope, that with terms such as ‘split Brim’, ‘folded brim’, ‘wide Brim’, ‘rolled Brim’ and so on, you can appreciate why I think ‘Brim’ is such a good all purpose word for this part of a Hat’s anatomy, why other terms feel more restrictive or less adaptive… a ‘wide cuff’ or ‘rolled band’ just doesn’t sound right to me. So many terms in Hat knitting have evolved around vertically knit bottom-up Hats yet you may have realised by now that I tend to mix things up a bit!

More importantly though I think we do our art, our craft, a disservice by trying to make it fit a mould that wasn’t created with it in mind. Instead of trying to bend what we do to fit something that it isn’t, why not redefine or create our own terminology that better describes the properties and functions of the Hats we knit and crochet?

eta/ the Hat featured in the main title image is my Laccio pattern.

The Sideways Traverse Hat construction method

All of the free patterns and tutorials on this website are supported by my amazing Patreons! If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be able to continue to produce or host freebies. We'd love to have you join us and in return, you get exclusive behind-the-scenes material, member-only discounts and early access to new free content. Membership starts at $1 per month. You can also say thanks for the freebie via the Tip Jar.

If that sounds a bit of a mouthful or has you wondering what on earth Woolly is on about now, think of it as a Sideways Brim to Brim method – and it’s the third sideways method in this series about Hat construction.

So… it’s another sideways Hat method? Yes, totally!

Before I dive in, I suggest having a read of the Hat Construction Guide and the Sideways Linear and Sideways Radial construction articles. They cover a lot of ground between them, talk through what’s different about sideways Hat knitting and how a Hat is structured. I’m not going to cover all of that in this article and without that background info, the construction description may not make total sense. It’ll be worth the read, I promise!

Like the Sideways Linear Construction method and the Sideways Radial Construction method, the stitches within our knitting will travel horizontally and parallel to the brim; a Hat made this way is worked as a series of panels, requires some grafting and allows for easy adjustment of the circumference size. So why is this one different, then?

The Sideways Traverse method is probably closest to the Sideways Linear method, in that all of its shaping is created by short rows. If you missed the bit about how there’s a sideways Hat method that doesn’t use short rows, then do check out the Sideways Radial Construction method article!

The traverse method is so named because our knitting travels from the brim to the brim. And you might say well, Woolly, don’t all sideways Hats do that? Where the selvedge edge is the brim edge and we work those consecutive panels then when we graft, the first and last panels join and the selvedge edge becomes continuous?

Well, yes, but that’s more about the direction of the construction. With this method one row will start at a brim selvedge edge, travel along to the crown, it’ll not stop at the crown and will instead travel through it, and then back down again to the other brim edge. And then you’ll work back again. I’ve named it the Sideways Traverse method because our knitting literally swings from brim edge to brim edge.

Let’s think about this a different way.

Diagram 1: the schematic represents a rectangle of knitting that it wider than it is tall. The arrow indicates the direction of knitting and the direction that the stitches follow. The dashed lines that sit to the left-hand side of the rectangle, to the top and bottom of it, represent the graft lines. And the central dash-dot line would be the fold line.

Imagine you start with a provisional cast-on and knit a rectangle that’s twice as wide as it is tall. You don’t bind off when you’re done; you’ll leave the stitches on a spare needle, and then you’ll release the provisional cast-on and place those stitches on to another spare needle. Next, you’ll fold the work in half horizontally to make a square – half of the released stitches from the provisional cast-on lie on top of the other half, likewise the stitches that you left on the needle when you finished knitting the rectangle. Now you’ll graft those released stitches together, and then you’ll graft the final row stitches together –it’s important to note that these two sets of stitches, the released stitches and the final row stitches – shouldn’t meet. Once the grafting is done, your square will have one open edge. That open edge is your Hat brim. Where you grafted will be your side seams. And the top of the Hat is simply where you folded the knitting.

Now, granted this doesn’t have any crown shaping at all, but it is technically a Sideways Traverse Hat – the rows were knit from one side of brim through the crown to the other side of brim and back again. Each selvedge edge of your knitting will became half of the brim circumference. What makes this method distinct from the other sideways methods is that not only is the crown shaping worked within the panels, but so is the crown finishing. With the Sideways Linear and Sideways Radial methods there’ll always be a need to do a sideways draw-through bind-off, as there’ll always be a tiny hole at the crown. That hole is created by the tiny selvedge that occurs as we shape the crown; it can’t be avoided, because every panel will always have an opening and closing row. Whereas with the Sideways Traverse method, it simply isn’t an issue, because our rows never stop at the crown.

This will have an impact on the crown shaping, because there have to be a few rows for each panel travelling through the crown. But as in the Sideways Radial method, the number of panels is very flexible and as in the Sideways Linear method, the entire crown is shaped by short rows – and that means we can get really clever about where and how we place those short rows to achieve different types of Hat styles and crown shapes.

And as in both the Sideways Linear and Radial methods, should you wish to create any kind of slouch – that is, extra room in the body of the Hat – or otherwise want to change the Hat between the brim and the body, then you’ll use short rows at the brim edge. Just remember that you’re working two lots of brim edges at a time, brim edges that will be opposite each other once the Hat is finished.

the ‘Get Garter - Envelope Slouch’ Hat, rear left view

the ‘Get Garter - Envelope Slouch’ Hat, left view

the ‘Get Garter - Envelope Slouch’ Hat, crown view

If you’ve made the Envelope Slouch from my Get Garter book, you’ll have made a Hat this way, using folding techniques to create the crown shaping and short rows to create the slouch. Techniques wise, this method is no different to the Sideways Linear method – provisional cast-on, short rows and grafting.

Let’s have a look at how our knitting may travel within a single panel of a Hat made this way.

Diagram 2: this schematic shows an example of a Sideways Traverse panel. Each half of the panel is worked separately, the right side is shown first then the left. The short row shaping occurs towards the centre of panel, as this is where the crown would be.

Unlike the Sideways Linear and Radial methods, a Sideways Traverse panel doesn’t quite fit into a neat shape. Because it swings back and forth, from brim edge to brim edge via the crown, we need to consider the number of rows that travel through the crown, so the appearance of the short rows may look offset within a chart or when viewed this way. However, when worked, this one panel is the equivalent to a pair of opposite linear panels and would give us a smooth flat crown.

The Pros and Cons

If you’re looking for a little more challenge in your sideways Hat knitting, this one could be for you. There are also, generally, fewer panels to work, as you’re working two sides of the Hat in one go. And it’s also incredibly satisfying to not have to close a small circle at the crown!

This one, in my opinion, really comes into its own on two counts. Firstly, how it’ll play with hand-dyed, variegated or handspun yarn. Remember in the previous articles how I said that the sideways construction methods make the most of these yarns and vice versa? This method takes it to the next level, as any variation in colour or texture within the yarn will travel through the crown and you can achieve a whole other set of effects.

The second is with the shapes that can be achieved. Because of the extra rows that travel through the crown, some of the more common styles, such as fitted beanies or slouchy Hats with gathered crowns, aren’t quite as straightforward with this method as the other sideways methods. And so, it lends itself to more architectural shapes, more sculptural or structural Hats. Which is no bad thing! Restrictions can become design challenges, and it’s something that personally pushes me to approach a Hat shape or form differently.

The downsides? Those extra rows that travel through the crown might be a fun challenge for some but not for others. There’s also the fact that, assuming a Hat made this way wants to be consistent all the way around the finished Hat, the second half of a traverse panel may mirror the first half, and not everyone can transpose that in their heads – this is certainly one area where I make mistakes with this method.

Then there’s the grafting, and how the setup changes the rules. This is a Hat that will be folded in half and the grafting will replace or be equivalent to two vertical seams, unlike the one grafted seam in the linear or radial methods. When we graft, it replaces one full and complete row. It has a relationship with the two rows either side of it, but it is equivalent to one full row of knitting. If you’ve ever knit a hood of the kind that’s folded in half and grafted, and especially if you’ve made it in garter stitch, maybe with a pattern such as Zimmermann’s Tomten, then you may remember stopping the final row at the midway point. Doing so keeps the graft, and any repeatable pattern, consistent and invisible. And it’s no different with a Hat made this way – that’s why the panel in the schematic above starts and finishes at the panel mid-way point, or at the crown point. This can be a tripping up point, and it’s something to be mindful of.

This is an unusual construction method and I hope this has helped explain it a little! It’s a method I have So Many Ideas for, there aren’t enough hours in the day!

The Sideways Radial Hat construction method

All of the free patterns and tutorials on this website are supported by my amazing Patreons! If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be able to continue to produce or host freebies. We'd love to have you join us and in return, you get exclusive behind-the-scenes material, member-only discounts and early access to new free content. Membership starts at $1 per month. You can also say thanks for the freebie via the Tip Jar.

In the Sideways Linear Construction article, I introduced the concept of knitting a Hat sideways, compared to how different it might be to knitting a Hat from the bottom up or top down, and why it’s such a fun and different way to approach Hat knitting.

Today I’d like to talk about another sideways method – the Sideways Radial Construction method. If you’re not familiar with sideways knitting, I’d suggest popping back and reading that first article, and you may find the Hat Construction Guide article helpful, too. In fact, I’d suggest reading these even if you are familiar with sideways Hat knitting, as there’s quite a bit of ground covered and some useful bits of info that I’m going to build on and reference today!

A sideways knit Hat is one where our stitches are turned through 90 degrees. Instead of our stitches following the vertical length of a Hat, from brim to crown, with the rounds we knit being parallel to the cast-on edge as they would in a bottom-up or top-down Hat, the direction of the stitches runs horizontally around the Hat when we knit sideways; the direction of the stitches is parallel to, and the rows we knit perpendicular to, the brim.

One important distinction I make in the Hat Construction Guide article is that it’s the direction of the stitches once the Hat is finished that determines its construction method, not necessarily the direction that we knit in. It’s a subtle but important distinction, because the direction of the stitches helps create the different properties of each method – it’s not just how it’s knit then put together. Today’s construction method will highlight that distinction, and may even challenge what we know about sideways knitting.

Those be big words, Woolly!

Just like the familiar method of sideways Hat knitting, which I’ve named the Sideways Linear method, this method is made up of consecutive panels, one worked after the other. You work one complete panel before starting the next, working the panels consecutively until you’ve reached the intended size. And you still work a little bit of the brim, the body and the crown in each and every row.

The difference with today’s method is that the rows aren’t linear. Let’s have a look at a previous schematic for comparison.

Diagram 1: in this schematic we see the direction of the rows we knit within a Sideways Linear panel. The rows travel back and forth in a straight line.

Diagram 1 shows the typical journey your knitting takes within a single panel of a Sideways Linear Hat, with short rows shaping the crown. Not all styles would look like this; a beret would have short rows at the brim for instance, but this is our starting point. The rows are worked back and forth, in straight lines.

Diagram 2: in this schematic the rows we knit within the panel don’t travel in a straight line, but instead follow a ‘U’ or ‘V’ shape. The direction of our stitches will still be parallel to the brim once finished, but the direction of our knitting has changed.

Diagram 2 shows the journey your rows would take within a Sideways Radial panel. Notice how it starts in the centre, working towards the crown, then comes back on itself before turning at the brim and following the same path back. The rows follows a ‘U’ or ‘V’ shape throughout the panel. The panel doesn’t have to start in the centre; it can start at the outer edge and work inwards, yet the path would be the same.

This is why I’ve named this method the Sideways Radial Construction method. The direction of our stitches is exactly as they would for any sideways knit Hat, that is, they’re horizontal around the head, running parallel to the brim. But the direction we knit in radiates out from the centre of the panel, or vice versa.

A deconstructed Hat made this way would look exactly the same as one using the Sideways Linear method, except the triangles that make up the crown would be a little different. Once we develop our understanding and skills with these methods, we’ll see that the crown shaping doesn’t have to be a particular shape within a panel, or rather – the shaping doesn’t have to follow a set pattern – as long as the overall crown shape is achieved. The panel gets repeated over and over, which makes a pattern of the crown shaping, even if there isn’t a pattern within the crown shaping as we work the panel. Much like how the crown decreases are incorporated into the stitch pattern in my Everglade or Aeonium patterns, or how the short rows in the crown shaping of my Toph pattern are completely hidden. Or how the crown shaping can be a spiral on a simple bottom-up beanie or be a balanced cross.

the ‘Chiral’ Hat

the ‘Mirallat’ Hat

the ‘Duality’ Hat

And the Techniques…

This is where this method gets interesting, again!

If you’ve got to this point and assumed that because it’s sideways then short rows are used to shape the crown, then I’m afraid you wouldn’t be right. This is a sideways method that uses increases or decreases for the crown shaping! If the panel is started centre out, then we use increases, and if it’s worked outside in, then we use decreases.

A sideways knit Hat without any short rows – cool, huh?

Except... not entirely.

If you want to add shaping anywhere else, such as the brim to add a bit of slouch or make a beret, then you absolutely will need short rows for that. It’s only the crown shaping that doesn’t need them, and that’s because the path the knitting takes isn’t linear at the crown end – whereas at the brim end, the path is linear as it meets the selvedge.

Like any other sideways knit Hat, we’d want to aim for a completely seamless finish, which means grafting will be involved. However, with the Hats I’ve designed this way, I’ve not used a standard provisional cast-on, although you could. Instead, I used the winding cast-on – it creates 2 sets of live stitches, which makes starting at the centre of the panel much easier; this cast-on is the opposite of a graft, which I find fascinating. For patterns that start at the outside of the panel then, I’ve used the winding cast-on to start with, worked the panel and grafted it at the centre, then used the second set of live stitches created by the winding cast-on to continue the next panel. Using the winding cast-on essentially reduces the amount of grafting, but it also helps keep the number of rows balanced through the Hat, which is key to making sure the graft works correctly and the pattern stays continuous.

Like the Sideways Linear method, the benefits to making a Hat this way are many. If the panels are narrow, the size is easily adjusted – just work more or fewer to achieve the desired fit. It’s also easy to adjust the size of a panel if it’s started centre-out, especially if the shaping formula is the same throughout. Hand-dyed yarns love these Hats as much, if not more, than the linear method, as they really highlight the construction and have folks asking “how did you make that Hat?!”

Stitch patterns will behave differently because they’re turned on their side, and you could also achieve some really interesting effects by seeing how that crown shaping works with different stitch patterns. Stitch gauge determines depth, row gauge circumference – just the same as the linear method.

If you’re interested in seeing this method in action, the Mirallat pattern and the Lateralis Hats are all made this way. Granted, each of these only uses 2 panels, yet at the time of writing, I’ve a series of designs in progress that use exactly the same method, only with 6 or more panels. It’s a method I want to explore much more; it has a lot of potential. It takes sideways Hat knitting to a whole new level!

The Sideways Linear Hat construction method

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When we talk about sideways knitting, it means we’re working horizontally instead of vertically. Our knitting still grows on the needles just the same, but the finished piece will be turned through 90 degrees when it’s finished. Because of this, the properties of the stitches change, which is something I find absolutely fascinating! Where we might use increases or decreases to create shaping, such as the crown of a Hat, when we turn sideways, we use short rows to achieve the same results, and vice versa.

The method of making a sideways knit Hat – the Sideways Linear method – that I’m going to talk about today is the most common method, and it’s often assumed that this is the only way to make a sideways knit Hat – but it’s not! This method may also may be known as a short row Hat or side-to-side Hat. I’ll dive more into some of the other methods in following articles and explain the differences between them.

Before I go any further, I’d like to walk through what makes sideways knitting different from vertical knitting, and how the way we make a Hat changes as we switch it through 90 degrees.

Comparing the Vertical to the Sideways

Let’s remind ourselves of how a vertically knit Hat may look when it’s deconstructed.

Diagram 1: a schematic showing how a vertically knit bottom-up hand-knit Hat looks when deconstructed. There are 8 vertical rectangular panels, each topped with a triangle that represents the crown shaping decreases.

Diagram 1 shows the internal structure of a typical bottom-up beanie with 8 lines of decreases. If we’re knitting in the round, then the left and right edges will be joined. We don’t really notice that we’re knitting in columns or slices, but as a rule we are, as the crown usually determines the mathematical structure of a Hat – to make a simple bottom up beanie like this we’d cast on with a multiple of 8, because there are 8 lines of shaping or 8 points of decrease at the crown. Likewise, we won’t see those triangles at the top, as the crown shaping is worked continuously and consecutively in rows or rounds, but that’s the shape our stitches are creating when we decrease towards the crown.

So, let’s turn that on its side. Because really, that’s all we’re doing when we make a sideways Hat. We’re just turning things on their side.

Diagram 2: in this schematic we see Diagram 1 rotated through 90 degrees, so the rectangular panels now lay horizontally.

As we can see in Diagram 2, those 8 slices with the triangles that make up the crown shaping are there, only we’re seeing them from a different angle. The direction of our knitting has changed, as indicated by the long arrow to the side. But other than that, the innards of the Hat, the mathematical structure – the anatomy – hasn’t changed at all; the shapes are all still the same.

One distinct aspect of knitting a Hat vertically, whether it be top-down or bottom-up, is that we knit each part of the Hat separately and consecutively. In a bottom-up Hat we work the brim, then the body and then the crown, and vice versa in a top-down Hat. Because we’ve turned our knitting sideways, that has changed completely. Instead, we work part of the brim, the body and the crown in each and every row. One row of a sideways knit Hat – because that’s key, we work this method flat, not in the round – will see us work from the brim edge, what would be the bottom of the Hat when worn, to the crown, the top of the Hat when worn, and then back again on the return or wrong side row.

Key Sideways Techniques

To create the crown shaping, and for that matter any other shaping such as a beret may have between the brim and body, we use short rows. The crown short rows would be stacked, in that they’d always occur one or two stitches before the last one, and that’s what creates the triangular shape in the schematic above, much like decreases would. The stitches that have already been short rowed sit dormant at the end of the needle, and they’re equivalent to the stitches that have been decreased in a bottom-up Hat – they’re there, but they’re no longer needed in that section.

And this brings us to an important point. We don’t see the sections or slices in a vertically knit Hat because we knit them simultaneously, within every row or round. Yet in a sideways knit Hat, we knit each section or slice separately and consecutively. I call these sections ‘panels’ in my patterns, as I’ve found that’s terminology most folks seem to be familiar with.

Diagram 3: here we see one single rectangular panel with it’s crown shaping triangle. The lines with arrows represent the direction our rows of knitting take.

Diagram 3 gives us an idea of the journey that the short rows would take within one panel. We’d start at the longest edge, working the short rows as they gradually get shorter throughout the panel, until we get to the end of the panel. We don’t short row every stitch, only those needed for the crown shaping. We’d then knit across all of the stitches – effectively closing the panel – and then start over to create the next panel.

And this is the why I call this method the Sideways Linear Construction method – the direction of our knitting doesn’t change – we knit each row one after the other and every row follows the same linear path. And because it’s a sideways method, we work each panel in turn, one after the other, repeating the panel instructions until the Hat is finished.

Ideally, we’d want a Hat worked this way to be completely seamless, and in every Woolly Wormhead sideways pattern you’ll find instructions to start with a provisional cast-on, then instructions to finish with a graft. A provisional cast-on is a false cast-on that can be removed at a later point, and grafting allows us to join two sets of stitches invisibly, as it mimics one full and complete row. These techniques may be unfamiliar or even daunting to some, and I think this is one of the drawbacks of this construction method, or at least, why this construction method isn’t more popular. Yet the techniques are not beyond anyone and I provide plenty of help via the website tutorials and tutorials within the patterns, as well as support via the forums and in online classes. Making Hats this way is something I get pretty excited about and I want you to enjoy it too, so I make sure I’ve got the skills and support covered ;)

As I mentioned briefly at the beginning of this article, when we turn our work through 90 degrees, the fabric properties and properties of the stitch patterns change. And some wonderful effects can be achieved!

When turned on its side, garter stitch effectively becomes a 1 by 1 ribbing. Garter stitch has a square gauge – 1 stitch = 2 rows or 1 ridge, which simplifies the maths, and that, coupled with its stretchy nature, makes it a popular base stitch for Hats made this way. Other stitch patterns, such as cables, take on a whole other look when we add them to a sideways knit Hat. Cables aren’t very stretchy, yet their attraction lies in the fact that we simply cannot recreate the same look of a cable running horizontally in vertical knitting. Colourwork changes, too – we can create vertical strips of colour without using stranded or intarsia techniques.

the ‘Diponaea’ Hat

the ‘Toph’ Hat

the ‘Construct’ Hat

the ‘Misura’ Hat

Now that I’ve mentioned colour, sideways knit Hats absolutely love hand-dyed, variegated or handspun yarns! The panel nature either breaks up any pooling or makes a feature of it, a bit like a kaleidoscope. So many beautiful and interesting effects can be achieved by pairing a variegated yarn with a sideways Hat. This construction method makes a perfect canvas for these types of yarns; they really come into their own.

Another very useful thing about knitting a Hat this way is that size is so easily adjusted. Sure, you’d want an idea of depth before provisionally casting on, and it’s your stitch gauge that indicates depth, not row gauge, and vice versa. Yet you can decide the circumference as you go, and you can try the Hat on for good measure. And as it’s the brim that’s the only part of a Hat that consistently needs to fit, circumference is more critical than depth – if a Hat is too long you can wear it back for a slouchy look or fold up the brim. In many of my sideways Hat patterns, I’ve been able to offer a wider range of sizes and more customisable options for depth or slouch than my vertical Hat patterns, and that’s all because you don’t need to decide how big the size – the circumference – should be before you cast on.

For me, though, there’s another reason why sideways Hat knitting will always be an all-out winner, and it’s a reason that’s rarely mentioned. Because we knit the same panel over and over, we get the chance to improve our skills. Each panel can act as a swatch if you’re unsure of your yarn choices. This kind of repetition can be good for the brain, practice makes perfect, etc. And there’s more to it than that.

I wouldn’t normally say this out loud, but I tend to get a bit bored knitting vertical Hats. Motivation dwindles part-way through the body, although if it’s a chunky yarn I’ll usually reach the crown shaping and then I’m on the home run. With a sideways knit Hat, it’s different. Each panel is relatively quick, with just enough challenges to keep it interesting but not too many, and the process gets repeated. If you lose your place, it’s not too far to rip back. If you don’t memorise the instructions, then no biggie, it’s just one panel that you need to remind yourself of. There’s no need to wade through a long set of instructions trying to find out where you were.

I have ADHD, and when I finally got my diagnosis, a lot of things fell into place about why I love designing Hats this way, and why I write my patterns the way I do. It also helped me to understand how sideways knitting can be a more accessible approach to making Hats.

the ‘Lenina’ Hat

the ‘Juxta’ Hat

the ‘Marina’ Hat

the ‘Muratura’ Hat

If this has piqued your curiosity, I’ve a lot of sideways Hat patterns to choose from! There’s a whole section you can search through and there’s also some free ones you can start with, too. Toph is my most popular pattern ever, but if colourwork isn’t your thing, Juxta, Muratura or Marina would be good Hats to try.