My son requested a basic watchcap / beanie as one of his early Christmas presents.

A boring, very tedious knit would never be my choice, so I was going to buy him one.

His requirements for a supposedly simple hat I could buy: not acrylic, solid black or dark blue, long enough to cover his ears completely, no logo or design or a very small one, not dk or chunky weight yarn & not a slouch.

After looking in several stores at scores of men’s watchcaps / beanies in (me warm on the West coast; son in – 0 F° degrees on the East coast), no luck finding one.
Our searches on both coasts found that brand & price didn’t matter, nearly all were made of 100% acrylic. A lonely few were a mix of wool & acrylic, but all were too short to cover his ears completely. So, I gave up & searched Ravelry.

I combined the best part of these 3 hats:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/perfect-reversib... Perfect Reversible Watch Cap by Nancy Elizabeth Munroe
Sock Weight, size 1 ½ (2.5 mm) ndls, k1p1, cast on 156, 6 part decrease

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2x2-ribbed-for-h... 2x2 Ribbed For His Pleasure by Tinksdarkerside
Sock Weight, size 1 (2.25mm) ndls, k2p2, cast on 160, 4 part decrease

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-boyfriend-hat-2
https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2014/02/02/lauras-loop-th... Boyfriend Hat
Sock Weight, size 3 ndls, k1p1, cast on 144 (160, 176, 192), 4 part decrease

Basically, my watch cap is long enough to cover ears even with a folded cuff & has an easy, flat decrease.
I varied the number of crown decreases, using 4, 5, 6, or 8 part decreases in the draft hats, but settled on a 6 part decrease for the Regular & an 8 part decrease for the Extra Large.

My first four drafts with the Patons Kroy Socks yarn used size US 1 ½ (2.5 mm) needles. As these sizes are not as widely available & the hats had more negative ease, I changed to size 2 (2.75 mm) needles for the final pattern.