Tired of gauge swatches? Want to knit a hat of any size from baby to adult, with your choice of yarn weight and needle size? Try this top-down, no-gauge kufi hat knitting pattern. You can knit a traditional hat that covers the ears, or a kufi-style (above the ears). Because you knit from the top down you can try-on and adjust as you go! Experiment with stitch styles and borders, too.

I used Berroco Jasper merino wool, color: Verde Lavras 3833, and size 6 dp and circular needles. You can choose your own yarn and needle size with this pattern. Instructions included to make a hat to fit 22-23” head size (standard adult head size) in case you don’t have someone to measure or are making a gift.

Single crochet elastic around the bottom edge for a snug, secure fit. Kufi in photo has black 1/8” width oval elastic at the edge and you can’t even see it thanks to single crochet.

UPDATE
A fellow Ravelry knitter, Splindarella, shared the following modification for making a less pointy top to the hat. I haven’t had a pointy top with most the hats I’ve made from this pattern, but once I did. I’m not sure if it was due to my gauge or yarn but her mod gives a gentler increase which will help eliminate the chance of a pointier top.

From Splindarella:
“When I made the second incarnation of this cap (under “Bugga Beanie” in my projects), I made the following mods:

CO 4 stitches using figure-8 method.
Increase using EZ’s pi shawl method (increases at rounds 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) to a total of 128 stitches.
After increases at round 32, work without increasing to
desired diameter.
Decrease stitches 25% by working K2, K2tog around.
Knit 1 round plain.
K2P2 around to desired depth and BO loosely in pattern.

I think that following the pi shawl Elizabeth Zimmermann increase method led to a somewhat flatter top for me. So, round 2 was an increase round (doubling the number of stitches on the needles), but round 3 was a plain round. Then, round 4 was an increase round (double the number of stitches again), and rounds 5-7 were plain. Round 8 doubled the number of stitches, then plain again until round 16, and so on until round 32 (which is what seemed to fit my husband’s head best).“

Here is another helpful Ravelry knitter with a helpful comment, too:

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/sewandquilt/no-gauge-kuf...