The Undergrowth Hat by Mandy Powers was published in Knitty Magazine, Winter 2011.  Beautiful leaves, inspired by hostas, adorn the hat in stranded colourwork.

When I first joined Ravelry, I remember seeing this hat pattern and I fell in love with it. At the time, though, I didn’t know how to knit (I only learned this past summer!), so I gradually forgot about it. Then this summer, when I was trawling through the free knitting patterns on Ravelry, I found it again…and so I just had to knit it!

The hat is available in three sizes; I made the adult large size. To knit the Undergrowth Hat, I used Cascade Yarns Longwood Sport in Silver Heather and Green Heather. This is one of my favourite yarns, as it’s soft and bouncy with a tight twist and multiple plies.

To knit, I used a 3.25 mm circular needle before changing to DPNs.

The pattern starts with Latvian braids. This was the first time I worked Latvian braids, and I had a bit of trouble.  I had to undo my first attempt because I wasn’t sure if I was doing it correctly (and I wasn’t). The colour you purl has to be the colour of the stitch below  and you draw the working yarn from either over or under the other yarn. This twists the yarn on the first round, but when you work the Latvian braid the opposite way on the second round, the yarn untwists.

Undergrowth Hat is a free pattern available here.

This finished hat is also available to purchase from our Etsy store.

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