The strong yellow of gorse can be difficult to work with in knitted colourwork but as a bold background behind the lattice of green ‘prickles’ it works well in this pattern.

After a picot edge and fancy brim the body of the hat is worked in ‘zigzag’ stitch (from an old stitch dictionary). The zigzags are a bit time-consuming to knit but easy enough if you have done cables before. The technique is very similar, but the instructions here do not require a cable needle, which speeds things up considerably.

The result is an unusual and striking textural effect that is worth the effort.

Requires approx. 75g of yarn.