Most of what I learned from anyone else about knitting hats, I learned from Charlene Schurch. I used to own her book Hats On and, before I started making up my own hat designs, I spent a good year or so knitting and re-knitting hats from it. In this book, she has a wide variety of hat shapes and sizes. She uses both colour work and pattern stitches very effectively.
I knitted almost every hat in the book at least once and one particular hat (one that you knit the persons name in), I made over and over again for all kinds of different people. I know I made that particular hat at least a dozen times. This is really the only hat book I ever used much. I think if anyone was going to own only one hat book, this would be a very good choice, even though it was written quite some time ago. I lost my copy years ago and never actually replaced it because I don’t use patterns anymore myself. I ordered it from the library so I could write this post and I realize I am still very influenced by her.
Using this book, I got a really good feeling for how hats work and, after a while, I gained the confidence to strike out on my own and make up my own hats. I have figured out a lot about hats myself since I started making my own. I have noticed that she has moved on to socks and other knitting pursuits. I am still mostly all about the hats myself…
Good for you and for recognizing that you’ve made the progress.