A knit hat pattern I designed just got released on knitty, and since hats are my favorite thing to make, I thought it would be fun to do a 3 part series of free hat patterns! This week I'm rounding up form-fitting designs, starting with my Vortex hat:

Knitty has a ton of great hat patterns, like the lacey Foliage, designed by Emilee Mooney, in two different yarn gauges:

And I'll show you a couple more designed by me - there's the Short-Rows Wavy Hat:

And the Big Bulky Bucket Hat:

Now for a couple really basic ones (definitely guy-friendly!), there's knitboy1's BasicSimpleLazy:

And the purl bee's Whitney's 70's Ski Hat:

One of my favorite designers, Ann Weaver of Weaverknits, recently posted the first in her Recession Series of free patterns - The Opie Hat:

Moving to not quite so basic designs, I love the stitch pattern on the Beauford Hat by Knititude - it looks like cables, but it's not!

Then there's the Waffle Hat by Gail Bable (the pictured example was knit by cyclecat):

And here's a simple cabled design by canKNITian (pictured hat by AmigurumiParadise):

I love the boxy top of Stella's Hat by Melissa of knitting school dropout:

Another of my favorite designers, and a master of hats for sure, Cosy of cosymakes, designed this cute and simple Train Tam:

Now for a couple ear-flappy designs, there's Thorpe by Through the Loops:

And then there's the Stress Ball Hat by Christy of Neither Hip Nor Funky, on size 15 needles for a super quick knit!

Time for crochet! I love this hat based on the one in the Twilight movie, by JennyHats:

Rheatheylia has a couple pretty crochet hats - there's the swirly Divine Hat:

And the Cable Hat, with great tutorial photos on making cables with crochet!

And lastly, Drops Design has a pattern for this crocheted earflap hat:

Of course, this was only a tiny selection of all the free hat patterns out there - the best way to find more is to search ravelry! And, I'm rounding up free patterns because I know they are most appreciated, especially now, but I do encourage you to purchase patterns from indie designers too! The only way designers like me, and all the great people in this roundup, will be able to continue coming up with new patterns is if we do sell a few here and there, so support your crafty community! Yay!