Baby Claus Hat + How To

It's not the first & it won't be the last: baby hat.

Hats, in general, are a work in progress for me because I tend not to follow a pattern's instruction. It's the handspun, art yarn thing which offers different gauges throughout a project. I'm very flexible about this as I love the final outcome, when it finally comes out.

This is probably the 4th iteration of Baby Claus Hat.  It's quite different from the rest because I used a commercial yarn for the red portion of the design. It's Louisa Harding's Susorro baby alpaca. This is a wonderfully soft chain-plied yarn and I wanted to see how it looked when knitted. It shows stitch definition really well if you're working a cabled pattern. I didn't go that far with this project :/
it would have looked more awesome, I know…
Anyway, the rest of the hat is my handspun yarn so let's look at that! The ribbed brim is undyed merino wool with black mini cocoons randomly placed. This is to give the appearance of ermine trim. There are 2 rows of a multi-grey single with a couple rows of random tailspun lamb locks in undyed merino. At the very top, I have not quite made a pom-pom but rather a felted ball wrapped in bacon, I mean more lamb locks with the majority of the tail ends splashing about.

CO 54 on US6 circular, 16" length
join in the round
*k2, p1* for 14 rounds
change to multi-grey yarn, knit 1 round, don't cut yarn
change to tailspun lamb locks, knit 2 rounds
change back to multi-grey yarn, knit 1 round, cut yarn
Change needle size to US8 circular, 16" length plus have a set of dbl points at the ready as there's going be decreases and fast!
Change yarn to Susurro and knit 7 rounds
next round is the beginning of the 3 stitch decrease; this where you want to pay attention to the count. There should be 54 stitches on the needles and the hat wants to have a taper now. begin by *k16, k2tog* for this round.
(a) Knit next 3 rounds
(b) Decrease by 3 stitches as before but there are now only 51 stitches so it's *k15, k2tog* for this round.
Continue knitting (a) & (b) rounds for about 3" (take into account that the number of stitches on the needles change after each decrease row so the stitches in between the actual k2tog continue to decrease by 1)
Change the row count inbetween each decrease row from 3 to 2 rows, continuing with decrease for tapered shaping. Continue until there are 5 stitches left on 3 dpn's. Cinch a tail of yarn through these remaining stitches, pull tight and you should have one nicely tapered shaped hat! 
Add your favorite topper if you don't have access to a felted ball.