In Stitches: Slouchy Beanie

Arjan modeling his new hat beautifully

Here you can see the decreasing K2togs forming a spiral pattern.

I've gotten back into knitting again, having taken a break over the summer. Last year I learnt how to knit a simple beanie on straight needles by, essentially, knitting a rectangle of pattern and then joining the edges to form the hat. This year I got some circular needles from my mum (cheers Loz!) and I decided to try out some things on them.
The first thing I thought of was a better beanie pattern! On the circular needles it is so easy, every row is a 'right-side' row and there are no seams on the finished product.

I started with casting on 80 stitches on my 6.5mm circular needles and began with a knit 2, purl 2 ribbing. Once the ribbing is as long as you want it, just knit, knit knit! You can work out where the 'end of a row' is by finding the tail end of the yarn and following the stitches up (I hope this makes some kind of sense) or to make life easier you can use a stitch marker of some kind!
When you've reached a length about 1 inch shorter than the top of your head (you can measure this by trying on your hat-in-progress and seeing if it's big enough) you need to start decreasing stitches.
You should have 80 to start with:
On the first round knit 8 then knit 2 tog (K2tog), repeat.
Then do a normal round of knitting all stitches.
Next knit 7 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
Knit 6 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
Knit 5 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
Knit 4 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
Knit 3 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
Knit 2 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
Knit 1 then K2tog, repeat.
Knit all stitches.
K2tog, repeat.

(If all has gone well) You should end up with 8 stitches at this point, you now want to cut a good tail of yarn and join all of these stitches together by passing the tail through all of them, using a tapestry needle. You can then turn the hat inside out, tie a good knot in the end of the tail and trim it/weave in the end. And voila! You can admire your newly created slouchy beanie!

I hope this has made some vague kind of sense, it may be that only people with at least a basic knowledge of knitting can muddle through and work out what I'm trying to get at, but hey ho! Give it a try and comment if you find a problem.