Free cable hat knitting pattern: Into the Wild

A step by step pattern for a beautiful cable knit hat for with a contrasting pop pom

A while ago I finished my beautiful cable cowl “Into the desert” and I’m so in love with this cuddly design. It certainly gained quite some attention on Ravelry, much to my delight. I had 4 more skeins left of the luxurious camel hair yarn from Pascuali, and so I started designing a matching cable hat pattern.

It took a bit of tinkering to get the cables of the original design to converge towards a pom pom but I think I found a lovely solution, and I’m really satisfied with how it turned out. Over the years, the lovely community of knitters gave me so much and I feel now is the time to give back. So, I’m going to share the pdf pattern with all my newsletter subscribers for free. All you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll send the pattern straight to your inbox, so you can save it for later or print it right away.

This was quite an easy knit, though it requires some patience with all the cable stitches (read my tutorial on how to cable without a cable needle). I’d say, it’s not a pattern for beginners but it looks way more complicated than it actually is (still, here’s how to knit a hat for beginners). You do, however, need to be able to read a knitting chart.

Here are some stats:

• Wool: Pascuali Cairo Color 01 (Double Knit, 95 grams or 190 meters / 208 yards; now discontinued)
• Size M: (56-60 cm in circumference; can be adjusted to other sizes)
• Knit in the round on circular needles size 4
• Time to completion: around 10 hours

I really, really love the softness of the camel hair yarn. Unlike cashmere, the stitches remain refined enough to really show the cables. It appears a bit grey in pictures but it’s actually more greyish-brown. That being said, I guess knitting this pattern with a nice DK wool will make the cables pop out even more.

I went for a contrasting pom-pom. First of all, who doesn’t like a little sprinkle of color? And then, of course, pom poms are true yarn eaters and I didn’t feel like “wasting” half a skein for $20 USD on something that doesn’t get direct skin contact. I substituted it with red alpaca yarn and I feel it worked really well. Alpacas are camelids as well, after all, but the yarn is quite a bit cheaper. Not dead cheap obviously but you can find a nice bargain here and there.

When I started knitting this cable hat, I was really torn between designing a folded brim or not. It can look awesome but I guess it really depends on the form of the head. After some trials, I decided against it. I felt it wouldn’t look good on me and obviously it will eat away a big chunk of yarn as well. That begin said, it’s super easy to adjust my pattern to create a wider brim. Just add a couple of more rows in the twisted rib stitch.

Oh, and of course you can knit this hat with either dpns or the magic loop technique. I personally went for later and only changed to a needle set at the very top. I am usually a big fan of double-pointed knitting needles and don’t like the unavoidable laddering magic loop creates. But with so many cables, it’s just easier to knit with two needles instead of 4 dangling around.

Anyways, without further ado, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter and get my cable hat pattern “Into the Wild” for free and sent directly to your inbox.

(make sure to check your spam folder!)

And for those who need some hard numbers, materials used, and the knitting techniques you need, here’s some further information:

Note: I earn a small commission for purchases made through links in this article.

Materials:

• 200 meters of DK camel hair yarn or similar
• 50 meters of yarn for the pom pom
• Needle Set size 6 (4 mm) or circular needles of the same size; I used this knitter’s pride needle set
• Cable needle
• Scissors & a tapestry needle
• Cardboard or pom pom maker.

Knitting techniques used:

This pattern is knit in the round using double-pointed needles. Magic loop is a very viable alternative as well (and actually better for the lower part). You will also need to know how to read a knitting chart. In short, it’s suitable for intermediate knitters.

• knit stitch & purl stitch
• KTBL & PTBL
• K2tog & K2tog tbl
• P2tog & Ptog tbl
• Cable Stitch (left & right cross)
• Longtail cast on

You can also add this pattern to your queue on Ravelry here.

I hope you enjoyed this cable hat knitting pattern. Feel free to comment with your questions or success stories!