Stained-glass windows combine the joy of many colors, sometimes subtle and sometimes bright, with the mystery of what might be on the other side. Is it a garden? A city? A view to the ocean? It’s usually impossible to see! This hat imitates a stained-glass window of hexagons by bordering each patch of color (the “glass”) with a raised chain stitch (the “metal” framework). You can skip the border if you prefer plain hexagons, but the border has the added advantage of hiding any slight imperfections along the edges of your colorwork.

The hat is knit flat, but I like to knit it on a circular needle since that makes it easier for me to see how it will turn out. There are six hexagons in each row. The hexagons at the selvedges have one extra stitch in each row to make it easy to seam the hat once done.

This hat is a great stash buster as you can use as many colors of yarn for the hexagons. The chart I offer here uses three colors. It repeats each color twice on each row of hexagons, but you could make each hexagon a different color, or even a different kind of yarn, as long as you keep the gauge the same.

As described, the hat is 8.5 inches unstretched from the edge of the brim to the center at the top. If you want a taller hat or have a tighter gauge, add more rows to brim or to the bottom rows of the partial hexagons just above the brim, as described below. Since this kind of color work doesn’t look good turned inside out, you won’t want a hat so tall that you need to fold the brim over.