Fish Galore Collection
2 hours ago
4 min read
Malabrigo Quickies November 2026 pattern
A fun and colorful headwear for any fisherman or devoted aquarium enthusiast in your life.
The Fish Galore Collection includes a hat and a headband. Both are worked in the round, in two contrasting colors using stranded colorwork, featuring a repeating pattern of fish motifs.
The hat has two options for the brim length, and an optional pom pom.
Inspiration
Last year, the Malabrigo yarn company opened a submission call for this year's Malabrigo Quickies program with 3 different themes: Lace Lovers, Color Crush, and Maxi Mood. I love their yarn, and already have a few designs with Malabrigo, so I jumped on this submission call and presented a few ideas. To my surprise, two of them were accepted.
In May, I published Raindrop Shawlette for the Lace Lovers theme in Quickies May Collection. And for November, for the Color Crush theme, my design Fish Galore Hat was chosen.
Per Malabrigo's description, "Quickies" program is all about celebrating small, fun, and impactful projects. A "small" project isn't just about being fast and easy — it can also be a challenging or intricate design that utilizes a small amount of yarn.
In the spirit of this program and the theme, I chose 2 skeins of Seis Cabos in fun, bright colors. And I wanted to bring more hats into my design portfolio, so the hat came to mind right away. The idea of some sort of colorwork was also flying around in my mind. But I didn't want something geometrical, more of some sort of specific motifs. At some point, probably my kids and husband were talking about going fishing, and I, as I was often daydreaming about knitting, thought, 'Fish! motifs would be great for a hat'. So, a decision was made.
Later, when samples for the hat were already made, and I had a small amount of yarn left, I didn't want to waste it; the idea came to make a matching headband. And a small collection Fish Galore was born.
Yarn
Let's talk about yarn! Huge thanks to Malabrigo for the yarn support. It's always a pleasure to open Malabrigo packages. And this time was no exception; look at these colors, so rich!
The yarn is Malabrigo Seis Cabos; it is described as worsted weight yarn, but it is on the lighter side of worsted. It is 100% Merino wool, 220 yds (200 m)/3.5 oz (100 g). I worked with colors 35 Frank Ochre and 412 Teal Feather.
The yarn is super soft, very flexible, and airy. Love to work with it; it slides on the needles like butter. The colors set pretty well; it will tint the water a little bit when you wash, but won't disturb your colorwork at all. Very pleased with the yarn, definitely recommend it.
Construction
The hat is worked in the round, bottom up, starting with a ribbed brim; the colorwork pattern works over the hat’s rise, and the crown is finished in one color. You'll have two options for the length of the brim: short or double folded. And an optional pom pom.
For the headband, it's almost the same: work in the round, starting with bottom rib, then colorwork part, and finish with top brim.
Stitch patterns
Two simple stitch patterns are involved in this design:
One by one rib;
Stockinette stitch for colorwork and crown.
Needed skills to make this headwear
You need to know how to knit, purl, make k2tog, make 1 stitch, work in the round, work colorwork with 2 colors, and read a colorwork chart. The chart is 14-15 stitches wide (depending on the size), and the pattern describes where to put markers, if you prefer to divide chart repeats as you work.
Sizes:
Small (Medium, Large, X-Large) to fit head circumference 20 (21, 22.5, 24)” or 50 (53, 56, 60) cm
Finished measurements for hats:
Circumference 18” (19, 20.5, 22)” or 45 (48, 51, 55) cm
Length without brim 6.25 ( 6.5, 6.75, 7.5)” or 15.5 (16, 17, 18.5) cm
Brim length, for all sizes, two options: 2” (5 cm) and 4” (10 cm)
Finished measurements for headband:
Circumference 18” (19, 20.5, 22)” or 45 (48, 51, 55) cm
Height for all sizes 3 ⅜ ” or 8.5 cm
What do you need to make Fish Galore Hat
Yarn: Light worsted yarn in 2 contrast colors.
Color 1 for short brim: 60 (65, 70, 75) yds or 55 (60, 65, 70) m,
Color 1 for long brim: 90 (95, 105, 110) yds or 80 (85, 95, 100) m,
Color 2: 65 (70, 75, 80) yds or 60 (65, 70, 75) m.
For pom-pom, add an extra 22-33 yds (20-30 m) of each color, depending on its size.
Samples made with Malabrigo Seis Cabos yarn:
- The hat with pom pom and long brim used Frank Ochre as C1, and Teal Feather as C2.
- Sample without pom pom and short brim used Teal Feather as C1, and Frank Ochre as C2.
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) circular needles 16” (40 cm) long,
US 6 (4 mm) circular needles 16” (40 cm) long,
US 5 (3.75 mm) DPNs or long circulars for magic loop.
Or size needed to obtain gauge.
Notions: BOR marker, 7 markers, tapestry needle, scissors, blocking supplies
What do you need to make Fish Galore Headband
Yarn: Light worsted yarn in 2 contrast colors.
Color 1: 42 (46, 48, 52) yds or 39 (42, 44, 47) m,
Color 2: 22 (24, 25, 27) yds or 20 (22, 23, 25) m.
Sample made with Malabrigo Seis Cabos yarn and used Teal Feather as C1 and Frank Ochre as C2.
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4 mm) circular needles 16” (40 cm) long
Or size needed to obtain gauge.
Notions: BOR marker, 7 markers (optional), tapestry needle, scissors, blocking supplies
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