Knitted Noro Hat

I picked up a skein of Noro Silk Garden on sale, and couldn't wait to make a hat out of it. Rather than look for a hat pattern, I designed my own. It's really simple, but I think shows off the Noro to its best advantage.

Here's the picture of my FO of the week:



And here are the instructions:

You will need - 1 skein of Noro Silk Garden and 1 pair of sz 9 needles (or size needed to obtain gauge)

Take your head's circumference (mine's 21"), and then subtract 3" (in my case, I get 18"). Do a gauge swatch to figure out how many stitches per inch you're getting. I got 4 stitches to the inch x 18" = 72 stitches to cast on. Do 4 rows of 2x2 rib. First and third rows k2, p2 * repeat to end of row. Second and Fourth rows, knit the knits and purl the purls. Row five, switch to stockinette stitch - knit all odd rows, purl all even rows. When the hat gets to 7" (or desired length), on a knit row, k2tog stitches across the row (so each set of 2 stitches get knit together, thereby halving the number of stitches on your needle - I ended up with 36 stitches when I was done with this row). Next row, purl all stitches. Now, cut a tail at least 10" long - you will weave this back through all the stitches on the needle (do a few at a time, once all stitches have been transferred from needle onto the tail, pull taught, thereby gathering the stitches (and closing the top of the hat). Thread the tail onto a yarn needle, and sew the back seam closed. Weave in all ends and you're done!

Yup, it's that easy! Not only that, but it knits up really fast, and is a good stepping stone for those who have knit one scarf too many. ;-)