My husband needed a new winter hat and I wanted to make him something with my hand spun yarn. My wool was about 12 WPI, so a worsted, almost DK weight yarn. My gauge was 6 stitches per inch, on 3.75mm (US5) needles.
The inside band of the hat is lined, so all the floats are covered, and the hat is warm around the ears.
A provisional cast-on is used to start the hat.
The hat is knit in the round.
I used one main colour and three contrasting colours, but the hat could be made with just one contrasting colour. Only two colours are worked per round.

The pattern is a very flexible, and it can easily be modified to suit your needs. Here are some ideas for modifying the pattern -
The band of the hat could be wider by adding extra rows or more repeats of the small patterns or stripes.
I wanted the top of the hat to have a prominent star so I chose a decrease pattern of K2tog immediately followed by a SSK, but these single decreases could be reversed to make the star less noticeable. Or a single double decrease could be worked.
I chose to knit the decrease round once every three rounds, this makes the top of the hat have a gentle curve, but if you wanted the hat to have a flatter top, you could knit a much wider band and then work decrease rounds every round or two. The hat could also have a steep point by working more rounds between decrease rounds. Also one single decrease could be worked at every marker, every second round to give the hat yet another look.
I finished the top of the hat with a little point, almost like an I cord, but you could weave the end of the yarn through the last six stitches, add a pompom or tassel….

The size of the hat can be changed by using needles smaller or larger. To make a child size hat cast on 100 stitches and work 5 repeats of the pattern.