Once upon a time I set out to make a funny, colorful hat for a balloon artist friend of mine to wear while he was out working in the cold. I wanted a hat that was going to be both warm and unusual. After almost running out of yarn when the hat was nearly finished, I decided to do the crown decreases on every round instead of every other round, and that’s how Random: Squared was spawned!

This pattern is very flexible—the prototype came out quite large, which is what I was going for, but the sizing is easily adapted. The stockinette sections can be folded in on themselves to give more layers of warmth, or you could eliminate a couple of them to create a shorter hat. If you would like the cuff to fit more snugly, it’s a good idea to go down a needle size to knit the ribbing.