I’ve been hard at work taking advantage of a slower summer knitting season, and new designs are my favorite projects to tackle. This month, I’ve designed a unicorn hat knitting pattern to share with all of you.
When I was a kid, I was really into horses. Mind you, I spent no time in a stable. But I was obsessed with reading The Saddle Club series, collecting horse figurines and practicing drawing them out of my how-to-draw-horses book. I knew I had to pay homage to my inner horse girl with a hat design.
And then I decided to take the horse pattern one step further with some flashy golden horns. There’s something about the mix of horses and magic that stands the test of time, and I hope I’ve captured that with this unicorn hat knitting pattern.
The Unicorn Knitting Pattern
I decided to knit this in purple, white and gold, a royal trio of colors. However, the pattern lists the colors as A, B and C, so you can easily substitute other color options.
The hat is knit to fit the standard adult-sized head, roughly 22 inches in circumference. The pattern requires knitting needles (round or DPNs) in US 5-7, depending on your gauge. I would estimate around 150 yards each in the two main colors, and just a bit of gold yarn for the horns.
The knitting chart does require some floats, so make sure you’re comfortable with the intarsia method of knitting if you’re fairly new to colorwork. I dove into how to carry strands throughout a project in my post about fair isle knitting techniques, so you can feel free to check it out for more help.
How to Do the Duplicate Stitch Technique
The unicorn hat knitting pattern is a little unique because it requires learning the duplicate stitch. After you finish the hat, you’ll need to embroider the unicorn horns onto each horse.
Why did I write the pattern this way? I like to avoid working with three colors at a time when doing colorwork. Fair isle knitting with three strands is a bit of a headache. While it’s tedious either way, I found the duplicate stitch to be less stressful. Don’t worry, though — the end result is well worth the effort.
The duplicate stitch is simply an embroidery stitch that mimics a knit stitch. You take the gold yarn and sew it into the final product, so it looks like you knit it in there to begin with. All you need is a tapestry needle!
The pattern provides some helpful links to a YouTube video and blog post outlining how to master the duplicate stitch. It’s really easy, I promise! If you’re unsure, check out a video to see if it’s something you can learn:
Where Can You Get the Unicorn Hat Knitting Pattern?
I’ve listed the pattern on my Etsy shop and my Ravelry store, so you can purchase it on whichever platform you prefer! It comes in the form of a PDF file containing detailed instructions, pictures, charts and tutorial recommendations.
Buy it on Etsy
Buy it on Ravelry
You can also buy a finished hat from me on my Etsy shop, if you’re looking to bypass the hard work.
Please let me know if you have any questions! If you decide to knit the unicorn hat and want to share, feel free to tag it with #hollyghats and I’d love to check it out!
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