Inspired by Astrid Feline’s ribbing and a 19 year old who likes owls, hats, and stripes in his hats. It had to be large, so:

104 sts for the ribbing, 130 for the hat.

I added 26 stitches (2 owls) which prevents the owls from stretching too far out of shape and fits the way he he wears his hats. It also made for a lot of frogging on the crown decreases, to get a round, snug fit. In the end I decreased the 26 over one or two rounds and used 8 “wedges” for the decrease. If I make a similar hat for this particular head again, I will shorten the overall height of the hat before decreasing.

The ribbing is done using the mosaic method which was fast, neat, and decreased the elasticity of the band. A good choice for this hat and this particular head!