This is the hat from the new tv show, Life Unexpected. The show, I’m not sure sure about. The hat, I love. I’m going to mimick this obviously-corporate, obviously knit flat hat (it has a seam up the back) but make it even better.

I’m not sure how many stitches to cast on, so I’m going to make it up as I go along. 88 seems like a nice number, doesn’t it? ;) I’m doing an invisible cast on, just like is shown in the image. You know it’s an invisible cast on because the ribbing pulls away from each other.

Hmm…this ribbing seems slightly loose. I think I should be knitting with at a tighter gauge or with a bulkier yarn. For now, though, since this is just a first run, or, as I like to call it, my “pilot,” we shall let it ride and see how it turns out.

My ribbing is coming along nicely. I’m about four inches in. In the photograph, the hat goes about halfway back in her head, so I measured my own and am making the ribbing that long as well. 6 inches, I believe. I think I’m going to decrease the garter every other row, though right now I’m still trying to figure out how exactly I should do that. There are several options, and I’m trying to determine the best one.

I had to watch far more previews of this show than I ever meant to in order to get the number of garter stitch decreases down pat. 20 ridges = 40 rounds, and after doing some math that means I need to decrease four times every knit round. Exciting.

For the first “ridge” of garter I did not decrease.

knit one round, purl one round on decrease 20 times. k2tog 4 times (8 stitches). with 88 stitches, to make it even the first row needs to be k2tog, knit 13 stitches, k2tog, knit 12 stitches and repeat.