DIY: Knit Osaka Hat by Kiku Corner

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We named this hat after the bustling, oceanside city of Osaka. The Seigaiha wave crest pattern is a traditional geometric motif that represents good luck. ‘Seigaiha’ means ‘blue sea and waves.’

The Osaka Hat pattern works best in a two colours of fingering-weight yarn in differing hues and values. Here, I used an azure blue as the main colour, and a speckled white as the contrast colour. Even though we designed this in fingering weight yarn, the foldover brim and the double layer of yarn in the colourwork ensures that it will be warm.

For this sample, I used yarn by the Canadian dye company Koigu. Blue and white are classic colours, but you can use whichever high-contrast colours you want. It’s important to use colours that are solid or tonal. Variegated yarn can hide the stitch pattern.

When knitting stranded colourwork, I find it helpful to use stitch markers to mark the pattern repeats. Also, try to keep your floats from getting too tight by pausing to space out the stitches on the right needle every 10 stitches or so. With stranded knitting, colour dominance is important for the pattern to stand out correctly. For CC to be dominant, hold the strand of CC yarn to the left and under the strand of MC yarn.

The Osaka Hat pattern includes multiple sizes, so there are directions to fit toddlers, children, and adults.