The request was for a winter hat that wasn’t itchy and didn’t grip the head tightly. (Any beanie EVER was judged to grip too tightly.) This pattern worked nicely. In order to make it loose enough to fit his head and to compensate for my famously tight tension, I added enough stitches to make an extra repeat around the head.

The herringbone stitch was really fun to do, once I figured out how to do it properly. (I misread the chart symbols to slip with the wool in BACK, so my first two attempts were total misfires.)

I also skipped a couple of the plain rows towards the top just to avoid it being too slouchy.

I think he looks like a total hipster, but he likes it. :)