Materials:
Soft cotton, cashmere or other very soft, smooth, non-itchy yarn, anything
suitable that comes in at about 14 wraps per inch, Sport or DK weight is
fine.
Needles: about size 5 or whatever you need for gauge in 16" circular
and same size dpn's.
Gauge:
5 st./inch
Pattern:
Cast on 100 stitches, join, mark beginning of round, and knit round
and round for nine inches.
Top of head decreases
Put a stitch marker every 10 stitches.
Row A: K2tog just before each stitch marker
Row B: knit
Repeat rows A and B until 10 stitches remain.
Cut yarn, draw through remaining stitches, bind off loose ends.
Easy or Beginning Knitter's Hem:
Neatly fold the lower 3 inches of the hat so the stocking stitch side
faces inward. Using a single ply of yarn so as not to create an uncomfortable
ridge for the patient, whip stitch the cast-on
edge to inside of hat. Alternately, take advantage of the natural roll
of stocking stitch and roll up a cuff on the outside, purl side out, without
making a sewn hem.
Knitted-In Hem:
When you cast on, use the invisible cast on method. When you've knit
6 inches, remove waste yarn, fold knitted tube in half from top to bottom
(stocking stitch side out) and join cast-on edge to working stitches by
the following method: K2tog, knitting the first stitch on the needle together
with the exposed loop 6" below it. It helps if you expose one stitch at
a time as you remove the waste yarn.
The advantage of the second hem method is that it allows a more adventurous knitter to include a texture or color pattern on the hem band and to cover the wrong side of the color or texture work, creating a soft, smooth inner band so the "bumpiness" of stranding or texture work doesn't bother the patient.
If you want to include a pattern, work the first 3 inches in plain knitting, then center your pattern in the second three inches of your work. After you've completed the knitted-in hem, knit 3 more inches before beginning your decreases.