Introduction: I designed this hat to be my mother’s ideal hat. It includes some of her favorite things (warm ears, no brim slipping into her eyes, pretty colors) with a few of my favorite things (short rows, stranded colorwork, orderly crown decreases). Then I knitted a second sample in man-size. My husband immediately claimed it for his own with great joy for the free forehead and warm ears. I think it might be one of his favorite things too.

Description: Two sets of short rows within the ribbing create length in the back to keep the neck warm and a comfortable wrap around the ears. The ribbing above the eyebrows is relatively short to prevent sliding down the forehead. The colorwork for the body uses a combination of stranded and slipped stitches for knitterly ease in creating vertically integrated motifs. The crown of the hat is squared off so a hood or long cowl can be worn overtop on bitterly cold winter days.

Techniques: In stranded knitting, many knitters prefer working only two colors in one round, but the vertical integration of motifs looks best with three colors in some rounds. In this design, this problem is solved through the use of slipped stitches in combination with stranded knitting. Colorwork is charted only. Grayscale and inverted grayscale charts are provided.
The pattern is written for German Short Rows as I find that method to work well for short rows in ribbing, though you may substitute short row method of your choice, of course.

Materials:
Yarn:
Worsted weight yarn in three colors. This is an opportunity to use up leftover yarn from larger projects.  You will want at least 60g main color and 25g each for two contrast colors.
Sample 1 used Malabrigo Worsted in Uva (MC),
Damask Rose (CC1), and Natural (CC2).
Sample 2 used Malabrigo Worsted in Blue Graphite (MC), Sapphire Green (CC1), and Natural (CC2).

Needles: 
In needle size to match gauge, 16” circulars and DPNs or long cable for magic loop. For ribbing, needles two sizes smaller in 16” circular.
Sample used US 8 as gauge needles and US 6 for the ribbing.

Notions:
Stitch markers in at least 2 colors, tapestry needle.

Gauge: 20sts / 24 rounds = 4” (10 cm) square in stranded colorwork using larger needle.

Sizes: Adult S (M, L) to fit heads of 19.5-21.5” (22-23”, 23.5-24.5”). Sample 1 is knitted in size M for a woman’s head of 22.5”. Sample 2 is knitted in size L for a man’s head of 24.5”.