As I mentioned before in my Ugly Hats post, I am a passable but not great knitter.

Well, something possessed me recently, and over the course of three days, I churned out these:

The maroon one came out wrong, since I let myself get distracted while I was making it, but I’m pretty proud of the others. They range from baby sized to adult.

All were knitted on size 13, 15″ circular needles. The smallest is 30 stitches around, the largest is 45.

The method I’ve found easiest for these is as follows:

Cast on the desired number of stitches as you would on straight needles, plus one. Slide the initial stitch around to the opposite needle and k2tog to join the sides, making sure that the piece is not twisted. (If you have a twist in the initial row, you won’t be able to close the top of the hat – I’m in the middle of intentionally knitting a tube scarf like this. They call them Moebius scarves.)

I don’t count rows typically, because I’ve found my row size to be too unreliable (not a great knitter, remember…). Instead I simply knit until I have enough length, then begin the process of narrowing the piece toward the top. I’ve found that narrowing is best accomplished by doing a whole row of knit 4, k2tog, then a standard row, rinse repeat. Then I eyeball it. Eventually the goal is to get down to 10-12 stitches, then k2tog all of them until I have just two stitches. Then I cast off and leave a little tail, which I use to pull the top of the hat downward into the inside and tie it off.

It’s not the prettiest pattern, but it works. If I’m using more than one color, it’s easy enough to tie it in.

The result is stockinette stitch, which has only one real disadvantage – it curls at the bottom. Better knitters than me will do rib knit for the bottom few rows in order to prevent this, but I’ve never mastered it.
Here’s a selection of my hats available for sale from my sister’s Etsy store. As much as I like to disparage my knitting skills, they are all solidly constructed. I think their chunky ugliness makes them charming.