This hat, in three sizes, is worked from the bottom up, in the round, with no seaming. The Puff Stitch pattern is fast and easy to knit, and using self-striping yarn highlights the pattern and eliminates weaving in extra ends.

I’ve been trying out other yarns. The Louisa Harding Amitola Grande work better on size 8 needles and will come out slightly larger if worked on the same number of stitches. The pattern multiple is 8 stitches and going up or down one pattern multiple is the easiest way to adjust the size. Plymouth Gina is fine on size 7 needles, but I think it would make a nicer hat in medium or large.

The puff stitch is very stretchy. Gauge in puff stitch should be 4 repeats in 3.5” but that isn’t an option in the gauge fields.

Two or three people asked about doing larger (or smaller) sizes of this hat. This is perfectly do-able but there are some limitations. If you use the same yarns and go up a lot in size the striping won’t work with the puffs. Small and medium work pretty dependably, you lose a bit with the large size.

Solutions:
1) Use a different yarn. Elegant Yarns Kaleidoscope works pretty nicely for an adult hat on size 8 needles. I think I used to make them on 72 stitches. The pattern has to be a multiple of 8 to work nicely. It can be done as a multiple of 4, but then the decreases at the top don’t come out as nicely.

2) Do the hat in a solid color, or do it as a scrap knit, using up small amounts of several colors.

The other thing to keep in mind if you want to make the hat bigger is that you need to do more rounds of puffs.