My husband has a beanie that he loved, but when he misplaced it, I wanted to knit a replacement for him. His original beanie had two layers of fabric, was knit at a small gauge, had no slouch and no brim. I knew of the Musselburgh Hat from different YouTube podcasts, and thought it would fit the requirements. Keep reading for my Musselburgh Hat knitting experience.
Musselburgh by Ysolda Teague is knit top-down with 4-point crown shaping. I was interested in the Musselburgh because of the customization; you can knit with any yarn, and almost any gauge. The hat uses a swatchless formula so you can just start the project and figure out gauge along the way. And because it’s knit top-down, I felt comfortable that I could knit to the non-slouchy/no-brim length I was looking for.
YARN
I bought a skein of Twist Nouveau from La Bien Aimee. It’s a non-superwash yarn that has a strong twist but is soft enough for next to skin. I chose the ‘noir’ color because the original misplaced beanie was black and it’s what my husband requested.
Apparently the Musselburgh pattern had recently been reformatted. There are now more support videos online so I was excited to be working from a revised version with everyone’s feedback and experience incorporated.
CAST ON
I was unfamiliar with any of the cast ons mentioned in the pattern, but I was excited to learn a new one. Ysolda has a video for the disappearing loop cast on.
I cast on the disappearing loop onto my US 2 DPNs. The video was really clear and I was excited to see that my disappearing loop was cinching up as desired. I chose US 2 needles based on other Ravelry projects that also used fingering weight yarn.
My stitches were divided over four DPNs (knitting through with the 5th DPN) and I knit the first 4 rows. I placed a safety pin stitch marker on my first stitch to mark the beginning of round (BOR).
INCREASES
When I got to Row 5, the pattern talks about “working to the next marker or end of current needle”. But I had no stitch markers except for my BOR. I went back through to see where I missed placing markers, but didn’t see any mention of stitch markers when using 5 DPNs or anywhere in the first 4 rows.
I started searching Ravelry to see if others had mentioned stitch marker placement, but didn’t find anything easily. So I found the Musselburgh hat tutorial video:
Stitch markers are mentioned in the video. They are used to mark what would be the end of a needle when you use fewer than 5 DPNs. And then it made sense to me why the number of stitches is specified for each needle when working DPNs. All I needed to worry about was increasing until the end of my current needle, and just repeat the pattern for each needle (since I was using 5 DPNs — 4 needles holding stitches, and the 5th to knit through).
I don’t work much with DPNs, and when I have it’s only been for my convenience in knitting a small circumference — not because the pattern called for it. So this was an exciting new thing for me to learn.
I kept track of my increase sections so I could share my experience here, and I was glad I did because knowing how many increase rounds worked is how you calculate your hat size. Of course I could just count after the fact, but I was starting to realize that knitting in all black with fingering weight would make knitting/counting a little more challenging.
MEASURING GAUGE
I planned to knit a size Adult Medium (AM) for my husband. Once I knit a good amount of increases and I could measure a one-inch square, I counted my stitches. I had 7.5 – 8stitches/inch. With a swatch so small, I wanted to knit a few more rounds to double check gauge.
The charts in the Musselburgh pattern help you calculate how many increase rounds to do for each size based on your stitches/inch. So checking my 7.5 and 8 stitches per inch against the Adult Medium size, I was only ~halfway through the required increases. I decided that I would switch to Magic Loop and take another gauge swatch when I reached the required increases for 7.5 stitches per inch.
MAGIC LOOP
I wanted to switch to magic loop because I felt like my DPNs were getting a little crowded. Using my 22″ mini cable and 3″ US2 needles from the Chiaogoo Mini interchangeable set, I knit through to swap needles. I placed these cute heart stitch markers in between each DPN as I knit through another increase section and onto the minis.
Once I reached the increases for 7.5 stitches/inch, I had a lot of area to accurately measure my gauge. I measured in a few different places and my gauge was 8 stitches/inch. So, I worked one more increase set before moving on in the pattern.
STOCKINETTE
Once the initial increases were complete, I swapped to my 14″ cable so I could knit easier in the round (not magic loop). I kept the stitch markers in place to help with the future decreases per the pattern. At first, I felt like this cable was just a little bit too long to comfortably knit in the round, but I got a few more rounds in, the more comfortable it was.
I insert a mohair lifeline with the first straight row and swapped out the closed stitch markers with safety pin ones so that they wouldn’t get locked in. The mohair was the thinnest thread I had that would fit through the lifeline holes in my mini needles. When knitting through the second round, I removed the safety pins and added back my heart stitch markers.
TRY ON / MEASURING
The stockinette was auto-pilot until I got close to the length I thought would be good for a no-slouch fit on my husband. I knit through with a 22″ cable and 4″ needles from my regular chiaogoo interchangeable needles set. This allowed enough room for my husband to try it on and I could assess how much more I needed to knit.
The try on fit seemed really good. I put in a lifeline as I knit back through to swap back to my 14″ cable and 3″ needles again. This lifeline was just a visual representation of ~halfway through knitting straight.
DECREASES
I kept knitting straight and measuring my progress against both my lifelines to know when I should start working the decreases. When I got to what looked close, I swapped to the 22″ cable and 4″ needles so my husband could try it on again. Things were looking great and exactly the length I was working for.
The pattern reminds you to weave in any ends at this point, so I used a darning needle to weave in my cast on tail.
I swapped back to the 14″ mini cable on 3″ needles and insert a lifeline. Then I began the decreases. Basically after the first couple decrease rounds, I needed to start using Magic Loop. The mini cables are so thin that it makes it easy to bend and manipulate the cable, and the decreases went by really quickly.
I closed up the bottom crown and used darning needle to weave in the final tail.
BLOCKING
Blocking can make everything even out and look really sharp. I chose this yarn because it is a non-superwash, so I expected it to not stretch too much, and I wanted to block the hat in order to just even out those increases/decreases, to better hide the rows I had insert the lifelines, and to get the two layers to lay better together.
I removed the three lifelines, and soaked the hat in cool water with a little soap. After ~10minutes, I removed it and gently squeezed out the water. I rolled it in a towel to remove any excess water, then I laid it out to dry on a couple squares of blocking mat. I didn’t use any pins or blockers — just smoothed it out and left it to dry.
Once dry, I turned the hat inside itself to create the double layer and gave it to my husband. The fit is perfect and he loves it. During the time it took me to knit the Musselburgh, we found the original misplaced beanie, but I think the Musselburgh will become the new favorite.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This pattern is really unique because it gives the formulas for knitting the hat out of almost any yarn weight or at almost any gauge. You can cast on with whatever you have and basically be able to make this hat. The hat is pretty simple, but you can customize the length and colors to make it extra special.
Like I mentioned, my husband was looking for a no-slouch, no-brim beanie and the Musselburgh Hat looked to be the perfect one. I really enjoyed making this hat and I’m happy with how it turned out.
Pre-blocking, from final increase to first decrease (straight stockinette only) was 11″. Knitting in black yarn was not as problematic as I first thought it might be. I knit this hat with one skein of Twist Nouveau and had 24g remaining.
Check out my Ravelry page to see my other projects and what I’m working on next.
