I use no. 8 needles (5 mm), and worsted weight yarn. A touque uses a bit less than one ball (say 70-80 grams) of yarn for the background colour (if knit as a single solid colour).

Most of my hats start at 100 stitches per row. To get a tailored hat, measure around the wearer's head, in inches. Multiply by 4 to get the number of stitches per row for a hat that has to stretch, or by 5 for a looser hat.

Make the brim. This will be reversed, so you're knitting from top to bottom when making the coloured patterns:

• 6 rows of garter stitch
• 8 rows of stockingette stitch, with coloured patterns
• 6 rows of garter stitch

Make the backing for the brim. The brim gets reversed, so you're changing sides. That's why it's 21 rows instead of 20:

• 21 rows of garter stitch

Make the second row of patterns. Remember that you've changed sides! You're knitting from bottom to top when making the coloured patterns:

• 8 rows of stockingette stitch, with coloured patterns
• 6 rows of garter stitch

Make the third row of patterns. Decrease 2 stitches per row:

• 8 rows of stockingette stitch, with coloured patterns
• 6 rows of garter stitch

Make the crown of the hat. Decrease as indicated:

• 4 rows of stockingette stitch, decreasing 4 stitches per row
• additional stockingette stitch rows, decreasing 8 stitches per row until no stitches remain

When making the decreases, be sure to distribute them evenly around the hat. Stagger them between rows, if possible. If they're all made in the same places, the garter stitch bands are pulled into "V" patterns.

Fold the brim up, and sew it to its backing. Take care to line up the top of the brim with the start of the stockingette stitch area in the body of the hat. I usually sew at the top edge of the brim, and at the top of the bottom section of garter stitch (to keep the brim folded cleanly).

Assemble the hat inside-out, and sew the vertical edges together.

Make a pom-pom, and sew it to the top of the hat:

• Cut an 8-inch length of yarn. Hold the middle between your index and middle fingers (running along the fingers).
• Wrap the pom-pom yarn around your fingers at least 100 times. Keep this tightly wound. I usually use 60 turns of a base colour and 40 turns of an accent colour.
• Loosely tie the 8-inch length of yarn around one side of the yarn.
• Carefully cut the yarn between your fingers, on the other side (opposite where you started the knot).
• Take the yarn off your hands, and tie the knot much more tightly.
• Hold by the long length of tied yarn, and trim as needed.
• Sew the long yarn through the top of the hat, and tie it in place.

Without any colour changes, this gives you a subdued but still rather nice hat. I usually make bands of colour in the garter stitch areas (changing at the end of the rows), and Fair Isle patterns in the stockingette areas (changing within each row in a carefully planned pattern).

Variations:

• For a wider coloured pattern, use 4 rows of garter stitch and 10 rows of stockingette (instead of 6 and 8). This changes the number of brim backing rows to 19 (from 21). The design is otherwise the same.
• For a hat with a flatter top:
  • Decrease 4 stitches per row for the 8 stockingette rows in the third band of patterns. It's usually best to omit the patterns, here, as it'll be hard keeping them look nice while decreasing this much.
  • Decrease 8 stitches per row for the 4 garter rows in the third band, and onwards within the crown until no stitches remain.