My husband saw a shawl in one of the Mason-Dixon knitting books, and thought the colors and pattern would be great for a hat.

Pick 2 close colors for the stripes and then 2 more for strong contrast; work from the top down in sport-weight cotton for a comfortably snug skully. Or try it in sport or heavy fingering weight wool. While the pattern calls for 1 skein each of 4 colors, you’ll have plenty of yarn left of each color for a couple more hats. (Or, you could use some of those leftovers from your socks!)