A few months back I swapped one of my cashmere hats for a few hours of practice time in a hard-to-get-in facility. It was a great deal for me, because I was bored of that hat anyway and needed an excuse to knit myself a new hat.
I wanted something that would be ridiculously warm in the dead of winter.
I had fun with green and purple-blue cashmere; I made a zig-zag rib; I made stripes; I finished the hat and then cast on a new bottom band to make it nice and snug around the ears; finally, I felted it within an inch of its life by washing it and putting it in the dryer for half an hour. It’s soft and dense and fits nice and snugly.