knitting: hat with straight needles

This is a nice, simple hat pattern that doesn't require the use of circular needles. The basic idea is to knit a flat pentagon shape --- a triangle on top of a rectangle --- and then sew the edges together so that the triangle becomes a cone and the rectangle becomes a cylinder, thus forming the 3-dimensional hat shape. I got it from eHow.

1. Cast on 60 stitches.
2. Form the ribbing by knitting k2p2 for 10 rows (or until it looks like the right amount of ribbing).
   • k2p2 means 2 knit stitches followed by 2 purl stitches; it's important to have 60 stitches (a multiple of 4!) so that this lines up on successive rows. For this reason, be careful about dropping stitches here!
3. Alternate rows of all knit stitches and all purl stitches to form the main part of the hat. Continue until about where you think the hat should stop tapering; eHow suggests 5 inches, but it's pretty forgiving.
4. Begin tapering off by knitting 8 stitches, then knitting two stitches together to decrease (k2tog), knitting 8 stitches, k2tog, etc. until you reach the end of the row. Then, purl a row, knit a row, and purl another row.
5. Continue reducing: knit 7, k2tog, knit 7, k2tog, etc. until the end of the row. Then, purl a row, knit a row, and purl another row.
6. To finish the knit part of the hat, alternate between reducing rows --- by knitting one fewer stitch between k2togs, so for instance you will knit 6 in the next row --- andpurling rows (with no reduction). Once you get to the point of knitting just one normal stitch between k2tog reductions, stop!
7. Instead of binding off, thread the yarn through the loops your knitting needle was just in and pull it tight. Leave 30--50cm of yarn so you can stitch the edges together.
8. Using an embroidery needle, darning needle, or other needle big enough to thread your yarn into, sew the two edges of the hat together. When you reach the bottom, tie the working yarn to the tail from when you cast on, and you're done!

I've knit this hat several times, most recently with bulky-weight 60% acrylic, 40% wool yarn (from yarn.com) and some random knitting needles I had lying around. Here's a picture: