This was the first of three hats that I knitted for my nephew, my brother-in-law, and Denny’s grandnephew. I used the same pattern and yarn for all of them. Three balls of Patons Classic Wool yarn were enough for the two boys’ hats and one adult hat. I bought 3 different marl colors, and used a different color for the ribbing of each hat. The design looks a bit complicated, but the pattern couldn’t be easier. After knitting the ribbing in one color, you simply change colors on every row after that. Solid colors work just as well.

The free pattern is for an adult, and I followed the directions to the letter for that one, except that I used size 6 circular needles for the ribbing, and size 7 needles for the remainder of the hat (on all 3 hats). the pattern doesn’t specify whether to “slip as to knit” or “slip as to purl”. I’m not sure if it makes any difference, but I did the latter. And it didn’t seem to matter that I used a worsted weight yarn rather than the yarn specified in the pattern.

Following are (only) my changes for the TWO SMALLER HATS. All other pattern instruction rounds are the same for both size hats:

With size 6 needles cast on 88 stitches (20” head which fit both 7-year-olds perfectly).

Repeat the 4 pattern rows NINE times.

First Dec Rnd 2: K14, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (78 sts)

Second Dec Rnd 2: K12, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (68 sts)

Third Dec Rnd 2: K10, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (58 sts)

Fourth Dec Rnd 2: K8, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (48 sts)

Fifth Dec Rnd 2: K6, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (38 sts)

Sixth Dec Rnd 2: K4, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (28 sts)

Seventh Dec Rnd 2: K2, k3 tog; rep from to last st, K3 (18 sts)

Last Rnd 3: Same as pattern (12 sts)
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Note that for the adult hat, I repeated the 4 pattern rows TEN times. I haven’t given the hat to my brother-in-law yet, but it fits my head and Denny’s perfectly. We both have large, 23.5” heads. You may download the pattern from this Web page:

http://www.caron.com/projects/ss/ss42_tri_color_mans_hat.pdf