After a recent kick of making hats, I finally found a good way to block hats–balloons! What took me so long? I blew them up to a 22 inch diameter and set the soaked hats on them to dry.

Talk about late to the party, I also just discovered Latvian braids! I just randomly decided to try them out on a hat and I love how they look. There are lots of youtube videos to help you understand how to make Latvian braids. I watched a few before trying it on a hat.

I chose my favorite hat and wrote up a pattern to share. I titled it Late Night Hat because I was late to learn about the balloon blocking and Latvian braids.

There are 5 color in this hat. If you choose colors that you already have consider using 3 dark shades and 2 light shades. For contrast, the Latvian braid should have 1 light color and 1 dark color. The background colors (main color 1 and main color 2) are both dark. The contrasting color is light and is the same for all the stranded colorwork. I used Knit Pick’s Palette and listed the colors in the pattern, but you could use other fingering weight yarns. Of course I recommend 100% wool.

Here’s the Free Pattern for Late Night Hat.