Knit Dragon Hat

An instant favorite! 

The idea for this hat came when I asked my son what colors he would like me to make him a hat in. His response: red & black!

I started looking for a fairisle pattern to knit his hat from, and really didn't find anything I liked in a basic fairisle. 

Sooooo.... I searched for fairisle charts and voile`! I found this red dragon chart on Ravelry! 

The "perfect yarn" chosen for this project was Sheep(ish) wool blend in black(ish) and red(ish). Sheep(ish) is a soft, slightly fuzzy single ply yarn, and just screamed "Pick me! Pick me!" How could I resist?

So all resisting aside, I knit the hat on size 7 circular needles as follows: 

• Cast on 92 stitches 
• Knit 1, purl 1 for about an inch
• Knit 2 rounds (stockinette).
• Start "flame" pattern: Knit 1 MC (black), knit 1 CC (red) for 2 rounds.
• Switch to knit 1 CC, knit 1 MC for 2 rounds.
• Knit 2 rounds MC.
• Start Red Dragon pattern, background color is MC, dragon in CC. ** To make the 20 stitch dragon chart pattern fit a 92 stitch hat, I simply added 3 extra MC (black) stitches at the end of every dragon chart-row.
• After finishing the dragon chart rounds, knit 2 rounds in MC.

Begin decrease rounds (the standard method for decreasing in a knit hat once you decrease the extra 2 stitches, I presume):  

• SSK twice evenly spaced in the round. Knit 1 round. (90 st)
• SSK, knit 8, repeat around. Knit 1 round.
• SSK, knit 7, repeat around. Knit 1 round.
• SSK, knit 6, repeat around. Knit 1 round.
• SSK, knit 5, repeat around. Knit 1 round.
• SSK, knit 4, repeat around. Knit 1 round.
• SSK, knit 3, repeat around. Knit 1 round.
• SSK, knit 2, repeat around.
• SSK, knit 1, repeat around.
• SSK around.
• Cut yarn leaving a 8" or 9" tail, sew through remaining stitches to finish.
• Sew in ends.

I know these aren't exact directions, but I'm figuring you've already knit a few hats ;)