Now that I’ve finished the Jewel Scarf, I’m at a loss for what to make next.  I want to do a top-down sweater, but I don’t feel up to something new and complicated.  I have a bunch of yarn left over from the Bryce Canyon Shawl, and I don’t like the hat I made with the leftovers.  I decided to take another shot and make another hat.

Top-down hats are easier than they seem.  The nice thing about making them is that you can try it on halfway through and make sure it works how you want it to:

• Cast on 8 stitches; join to work in the round.
• Increase in each stitch; 16 total.
• Work 1 round even.
• Increase 8 stitches in next round.
• Work 1 round even.
• Repeat last two rows until it’s round enough to cover the crown of your head.
• Work straight for as long as you want it, down to the ears or longer, if you want a foldable brim.
• Then bind off and you’re done.

I like Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewing needle bind off best, because it’s a nice edge, and isn’t tight or rigid.

• Leave a long end of yarn and thread it in a blunt sewing needle.
• Insert the needle into the next 2 stitches as if to purl and pull through, leaving the stitches on your knitting needle.
• Insert the needle into the first stitch as if to knit and pull the stitch off the knitting needle.
• Repeat these steps across the end of the row.

What about you, Dear Reader?  What’s in your stash?