When I swatched for my Strikethrough sweater last fall, I knew right away that I wanted to design a squishy brioche hat knitting pattern to match. I’ve been into brioche knitting patterns recently because they are soothing to knit, squishy, and so much fun to wear.
Quick Links
- Click here to purchase the Smush pattern PDF on Ravelry
- Click here to purchase the Smush pattern PDF on my website
Or keep reading to learn more about the pattern and my inspiration!
Sadly, I didn’t have enough yarn to make both the sweater and a hat.
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking them. I only link to products I have used personally and truly love.
When I traveled to Paris, France for my birthday in January 2020, I couldn’t wait to visit La Bien Aimée, a beautiful yarn store selling their house brand hand-dyed yarn. I knew I absolutely had to get some of their yarn for my brioche hat pattern idea.
I picked up two skeins of their Merino Sport yarn: a deep, dark, moody purple called Gaji and a sunny, slightly grungy yellow called Yellow Brick Road Graffiti.
Side note: La Bien Aimée yarns are available in a variety of online and brick and mortar yarn shops around the world, but I highly recommend stopping by if you are ever in Paris! You will get to be surrounded by (and squish!) the biggest collection of La Bien Aimée you are ever going to see in one place.
Finally, almost a year after my initial idea and nine months after buying the yarn, I’m excited to present to you the knitting pattern for my Smush hat!
About Smush
Inspired by the two-color brioche striped yoke and stockinette body of Strikethrough, I wanted this hat to have a wide two-color brioche stripe on the brim, with the rest of the hat in stockinette.
The brioche stitch is extremely stretchy, but it also doesn’t have a lot of recovery, meaning it doesn’t necessarily snap back to size after stretching. That means I didn’t want to rely on brioche alone for the brim of this hat knitting pattern.
Instead, I decided to line the brim with one-by-one ribbing for a snug, elastic fit. As an extra bonus, the brim is doubly warm–much warmer than you would expect a sport-weight hat to be–and very squishy!
Fit and Sizing
Smush is designed as a fitted beanie (or toque) with sizes available to knit this brioche hat for everyone in your family.
Smush comes in seven sizes, from newborn to adult large. Visit the product page for Smush in my shop for the finished measurements for each size and information on choosing a size.
Materials
Yarn
Smush calls for two colors of sport weight yarn. You will need most of a 355 yd (325 m) / 100 g skein of sport weight in a main color and about 36 yd (33 m) / 10 g of sport weight in a contrast color for the adult sizes. You won’t need as much for the baby and kids sizes.
I chose to use La Bien Aimée Merino Sport, but any sport-weight yarn you like for hats will do!
For a more affordable, budget-friendly option, I recommend KnitPicks Hawthorne, which is a scrumptious wool/nylon blend that I love. Hawthorne is marketed as a fingering weight yarn, but the yardage/meterage is almost identical to what you get from the Merino Sport I used.
Needles
You will need a set of 16 in / 40 cm circular needles in the size that allows you to obtain the pattern gauge, plus a set of DPNs in that same size.
You will also need a set of 16 in / 40 cm circular needles one size smaller than the size you used to obtain the pattern gauge, which will be used for the brim to make sure it is nice and snug.
The gauge you’ll need to shoot for is 28 stitches and 36 rows per 4 in / 10 cm in stockinette stitch, in the round.
I used US 2 / 2.75 mm needles to obtain gauge and US 1 / 2.5 mm needles for the brim.
Click the following links to buy the recommended needles for this project in my favorite needle brand, Chiaogoo Red Lace:
- Click here to buy 16 in / 40 cm US 2 / 2.75 mm circular needles.
- Click here to buy a set of DPNs in US 2 / 2.75 mm.
- Click here to buy 16 in / 40 cm US 1 / 2.5 mm circular needles.
Remember, you may not want to use the recommended needle size if you get gauge with a different size!
Where to Buy
Click here to purchase the Smush pattern PDF on Ravelry, or click here to purchase the Smush pattern PDF on my website!
I have been wearing this hat a lot since the weather turned cold here in Michigan. I think this would be a great hat to knit for yourself this fall, or maybe as Christmas, Chanukah, or other holiday presents for your family and friends!
What do you think? Are you going to give this hat a try?
Save it for Later!
Click here to add Smush to your Ravelry queue or favorites.
Or click below pin it to your knitting planning board!
Thank you for your support. ❤️