I want to knit a stockinette hat with a pom-pom and one pretty cable in bulky yarn. I’m going to try to use the Irish Hiking Hat cable pattern for the one cable and figure the rest around it.

4/22/2020: Okay, trying: CO 64 sts with US 8s and knitting 2x2 ribbing. Switched to US 9s at 1.5 inches. To add the one cable, I knit 54 sts, then p2, k6, p2. Those 6 knit stitches became my cable column, C6F every 8 rows.

4/24/2020: Once I’d reached 3.5 inches from the cast-on edge, I measured the hat and it’s knitting up to be 18 inches around, which is smaller than I want. Sigh. The stockinette portion is knitting up at 4 sts per inch. The 10-st cable column is 2.25 inches wide. Ripping and re-trying with 72 sts.

4/28/2020: Yes, 72 sts worked better. Started the decreases shortly after 5.5 inches from the cast-on edge, the row after a cable turn. I tried to follow the decreases from the Irish Hiking Hat pattern and they were too slow for the bulky-weight yarn I have. So, retrying:

• Row 1: k7, k2tog, PM 6 times, k8, PM, p2tog, k6, p2tog. Now I have eight sets of eight sts each; the last set contains the entire cable column.
• Rows 2 and 4: knit the knits, purl the purls
• Row 3: k6, k2tog 7 times, p1, k6, p1
• Row 5: k5, k2tog 7 times, p1, ssk, k2, ktog, p1. (Eight sets of six sts each remain).
• Row 6: k4, k2tog 7 times, p1, C4F, p1
• Row 7: k3, k2tog 7 times, p1, ssk, k2tog, p1. (Eight sets of four sts each remain).
• Row 8: k2, k2tog 7 times, p1, k2, p1
• Row 9: k1, k2tog 7 times, p1, p2tog, p1
• Row 10: k2tog 7 times, p3tog

4/29/2020: Just need to make the pom-pom!

11/14/2020: I had planned to make the pom-pom with my niece, but given the pandemic, we are social distancing and so making the pom-pom together wasn’t in the cards this year. So I went ahead and made the pom-pom so she could have a warm hat to wear since winter is coming.