A most simple pattern (repeat 18 stitches by 18 rows, max float three stitches), 8×18=144 stitches around the cap. I wouldn’t recommend exposed floats more than four stitches long.

The floats render the blurred look.

Observing the colour dominance rule is of utmost importance here. I (literally) knit the cap from the “wrong” side and kept the blue dominant (if you knit the Continental style, the thread that goes over your index finger closer to the fabric becomes dominant); thus the white becomes dominant on the other/float side. An example of how things get messed up by failing to follow the colour dominance rule.

Also, even tension throughout the cap is rather important; the coarser the yarn, the easier to achieve that.

About a trick of concealing the end-of-row jog you can read here. In fact, there were 143 stitches around this cap.

Rather content about the crown: it took some intellectual exercise to figure out how to purl the decreases.