Spiral Hat

Our knitting guild is involved in the 25,000 Tuques initiative. One hat for every refugee coming to our cold country. I can't imagine having to endure a first winter here when you come from a hot country. Let alone all the other problems they are facing. So I'm taking up Jed's suggestion and applying spiral stripes to my hats. I am diving into my stash for all those little odd balls of yarn that are left over from previous projects.

Here it is:  get 4 colours of yarn, small odd balls, 5.0mm/US8 circular needle (40cm/16" long).
Small Child sized Hat. It works for any size of hat.

With Colour 1, Cast On 72 sts with Worsted weight or Heavy Worsted weight yarn. Place Marker and join in the round.

Work a Brim in 1x1, 2x2 rib or whatever you like. I knit 4 rounds and then purled 1 round.

Body
In next round place 2 more Markers. You need to divide your work into 1 less section than you have colours. I have 4 colours so divide my hat into 3 equal sized sections with the Markers.
Next Round: K24, Place Marker, K24, Place Marker, knit to end of round.

Stripes:
Here we go. DO NOT TWIST stitches as you change colours. I finished here with light gray, now I'm picking up the Dark Gray which was waiting there for me.

I'm going to knit with the Dark Gray. The colours are not twisted around each other.
Here's my latest hat:

And at the change of colour:

Here we go:
Round 1:  With Colour 2, knit to first Marker, slip Marker, with Colour 3 knit to next Marker, slip Marker, with Colour 4 knit to end of round.

Round 2:  With Colour 1 knit to first Marker, with Colour 2 knit to next Marker, with Colour 3 knit to end of round.

Round 3:  With Colour 4 knit to first Marker, with Colour 1 knit to next Marker, with Colour 2 knit to end of round.

Round 4:  With Colour 3 knit to first Marker, with Colour 4 knit to next Marker, with Colour 1 knit to end of round.

Every time you come to a Marker the colour you need to knit next is right there waiting for you. You will not be able to see where the colour changes are made. It's a fun knitting trick!

Work the Crown in your normal way. If you don't have one, here's one:
Divide your knitting into 8 sections and place markers. For this hat, 72 sts divided by 8 is 9 sts.
Marker Round:  *K9, Place Marker; repeat from * to end of round.
Decrease Round:  *Knit to 2 sts before Marker, K2tog; repeat from * to end of round.
Next Round:  Knit.
Repeat last 2 rounds until 8 sts remain. Cut yarn and thread through 8 sts, cinch up and secure. You're done.

Enjoy,
Deb