I’m always frustrated by decreases that interrupt the stitch patterns in my knitting, especially in bulky yarn and in simple stitches, both of which make themselves much more visible on small canvases such as hats. So, when I started thinking about knitting a bulky, cable-covered hat, I also started thinking about whether it would be possible to include decreases inside my cabling, thus creating as streamlined a pattern possible. This hat is the result of that experiment.

Even though this pattern is pretty hung up on small details, it’s mostly made up of simple cables, making it a great first cabled project for an adventurous knitter. It takes its name, fittingly, from the location where I finished (and photographed) both hats, First Encounter Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts – finished just in time, I might add, for a giant rainstorm, which made me appreciate the comfy wooliness of my hat even more than I usually would!

This pattern includes charts for a slightly over-sized, slouchy hat in two sizes (one size fits most and one for people with heads the size of my boyfriend’s - huge!). It also includes instructions for the Italian Tubular Cast-On, my favorite method for starting 1x1 rib.