Thanks for all your input on the Circumnav Cardi! Having a fresh set of eyes is very helpful. Now that that's moving along- I finally got to jump over to something that's been gnawing at my brain since January. Remember this green yarn I picked up in Vegas? No? Didn't think so. Since I got it I have been sketching and calculating things like this.

This image could possibly prove to be a more interesting What do You See? exercise.
Backing up, when I first got this yarn I knew I wanted to do something with it that played with directional stitches. It's what I usually go to for variegated yarns, I think it shows off the qualities best that way. This yarn however has more Noro-like subtle color transitions so that quickly ruled out small twisted stitch like motifs. I wanted to preserve the thicker striping effect and I started thinking of diagonal stitches. After much swatching this led to deciding to knit the entire piece on the diagonal for a hat.

The easiest route would have been to knit a long rectangle and cinch it shut but I felt this was cheating. Plus I'm not a big fan of puffiness on top of my head. So I calculated the dimensions of a basic in the round, bottom up ribbed hat that was then slit open flat. Using my favorite drawing program I drew a schematic to scale and then rotated it 45 degrees. Viola! Now I could mark off segments to measure and calculate my stitches, thus the odd looking graphic above.

I've been so eager to test out my pattern "theory" as I am calling it (as in, I think it'll work) that the knitting is already almost done.

Ok, so it does look more eel-like than hat-like at the moment but that's mostly because the ribbing is pulling it in. I won't know for sure until I seam it if this first go at it worked, but so far wrapping it around my head at intervals seems to indicate it will. *crosses fingers*