The Professor's Beanie Hat

Earlier this year the Scientific Director at my day job moved on to a new post.  As well as a big collective leaving present, some of us thought we'd like to give him more personal souvenirs of his time at ICMS.  One of my colleagues suggested I knit him a new hat to wear while standing outside on his cigarette breaks. So this is what I came up with. As a hat for a mathematician, of course there are mathematical features - simple ones that could be made quickly and which don't detract from a classic shape. There are powers of two in the rib, the Fibonacci sequence in the sides and then a seven-sided (heptagonal) crown.

 

It's knitted in the round  with one skein of Rowan's Lima, an amazingly soft, baby alpaca yarn that's approximately aran weight.  I picked this colour because it's similar to the ICMS logo colours but it's much richer, with a lot of detail in the drifting shades. Different yarns will work but beware of tension etc.  I don't have the hat anymore so can't measure it to give you a tension measurement. The yarn I used came out soft and slouchy but others will give different textures.  I like to experiment so I'll probably make at least one more in a quite different yarn and see what happens. Here's what I did for this one though.

Cast on 84 stitches with 5.5mm dpns and join in a circle and place marker for start of round.
Work 2 plain, 2 purl rib for 8 rounds.
[that's your powers of two - 2x2 for 2-cubed rounds]

Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
Knit 2 rounds
Purl 3 rounds
Knit 5 rounds
Purl 8 rounds
Knit 13 rounds
[alternating knit and purl stripes following Fibonacci sequence - each width is the sum of the previous two]

Purl one round
[this defines the edge of the crown]

Heptagonal crown rounds
1. knit 10, knit two together 7 times
2. knit to marker
3. knit 9, knit two together 7 times
4. as row two
5. knit 8,  knit two together 7 times
6. as row two
7. knit 7,  knit two together 7 times
8. as row two
9. knit 6,  knit two together 7 times
10. as row two
11. knit 5,  knit two together 7 times
12. as row two
13. knit 4,  knit two together 7 times
14. as row two
15. knit 3,  knit two together 7 times
16. as row two
17. knit 2,  knit two together 7 times
18. as row two
19. knit 1,  knit two together 7 times
20. as row two
21. knit two together 7 times

Thread last remaining 7 stitches onto yarn, pull tight and fasten off.  Weave in the ends and your hat is finished.

If you have a go at making one I'd love to see it.