This hat has the last three patterns of chapter 5, Slip-Stitch Patterns, YEAH!!!! The brim and topper are done with Indian Cross Stich, pg 112, and the main body of the hat uses “Closing” Double Cable, pg 112 and Slipped Hourglass, pg 110.
I cast on 104 stitches for the brim and did 3 rows of garter stitch before doing one 12 row repeat of the cross stitch. It was difficult to read the cross stitch so I picked up a set of stitches from the back of the cast on row and carried a rib up the inside of the brim to put some colour in behind. I then joined everything back together and decreased to 102 for the twist stitch patterns. This was six repeats of each pattern.
To decrease, I got rid of every other hourglass, then every other cable, then the rest of the cables, then the last hourglasses. This happened slowly over 20 rows to make the top more pointy. I then increased back to 24 stitches to do the topper. I find these days if I don’t know what to do on the top, I just use between 20 and 30 stitches of the brim pattern on the top. You can’t really go wrong if you echo the bottom, I figure.
BTW…I absolutely hated doing the cross stitch, especially on four needles at the top, but I think it looks ok in the end.