Here's a picture of my latest hat. It's a takeoff on the Tamtopper pattern
I used 150 grams of recycled sari silk yarn from ArtFibers in San Francisco for the main body of the hat. 175 would have been better. Since sari silk isn't especially stretchy, I used sock yarn for the band. The sock yarn was Soxx Appeal from Knit One Crochet Too, in berry color.
Here are instructions for the hat I ended up with:
Using a US 7 circular needle, cast on 96 stitches with the sock yarn. Place marker, join ends, and knit somewhat tightly for about an inch and a half of 1X1 ribbing, then change yarn to the sari silk, leaving a tail of about 30 inches of sock yarn. Loosen up on the tension and knit 2 rounds of plain stockinette with the sari silk.
Fold the sock yarn ribbing so the bottom half inch or so is doubled over on the inside of the hat. Weave in both tails of the sock yarn by using them to sew the bottom of the ribbing to the inside of the hat. (It's okay to leave this step till the end, but I like to get it out of the way early, especially in view of the long tail of sock yarn.)
For the next round of sari silk, increase one stitch for every 3, taking a round from 96 to 128 stitches. I was lazy and used yarn over increases, but *knit 2, knit into the front and back of the loop*, repeat from * is probably a better method.
Knit plain stockinette for about 4 1/2 inches from increase.
*Knit 15, place marker*, repeat from *, then decrease as follows:
*Knit until 2 stitches before marker, slip1, knit1, pass slipped stitch over*, repeat from *. (K2 together decreases would seem much more straightforward, but I used the decreases in the Tamtopper pattern.)
Knit one round plain.
The Tamtopper pattern has you continue this pattern of decreases until you're down to one stitch per repeat. However, I was running out of yarn early, so I stopped knitting plain rounds after only 2 sets of decreases. Given a choice, I would have knit a plain round after every decrease round.
When you are down to only one stitch per repeat, break the yarn and use a tapestry needle to thread the tail through the remaining stitches on the needle. Pull these stitches tight, then weave in the end if you don't want to add an embellishment. I added a homemade button at the top and used the tail to sew it on.
For the button, I used a quarter inch metal washer (about 1 inch outside diameter), but any ring about an inch in diameter should work. Thread another piece of yarn through the center of the ring, then wind the yarn from the center out around the edge and back until the ring is evenly covered by yarn. To avoid pooling with some variegated yarns, start with 5 wraps distributed evenly around the washer, then fill in using about 5 wraps for every time around. When the button looks good, pass the 2 yarn ends through the top of the hat, pull tight, then use the tails to sew the button on tighter.
