THE "I LOVE A PARADE" HAT
Sometimes it is a good thing to cast on and just start knitting without a specific goal in mind. In my new "no-more-stupid-rules" outlook on knitting, I'm hoping to knit more often without patterns at all. Here is my latest effort in Cascade 220.
This hat shows the "lazy knitter" method of doing corrugated ribbing - change colors on the knit stitches instead of on the purl stitches. It is easy and quite fast if you're a two-handed color knitter - just do the purls with your right hand and the knits with your left. Here you can see the reverse side - I almost like the way the top design looks better in reverse. (INKnitters once had an article on using the reverse side of color stranding for the front of the work - I think I'll try that some day.)
To make the curlicues on top, cast on a random number of stitches, knit into the front, the back, and the front of each stitch and bind off in purl. Do this as loosely as possible with your pointiest needles or you'll go insane. You can also use this technique for simple flowers.