The parabola is one of those mathematical ideas that actually have real-life occurrences: a bouncing ball will form a parabolic arc in the air; the streams from water fountains shape themselves into parabolas; suspension bridge cables also follow parabola-shaped curves.

I created this design with the graceful swoop of parabolas in mind. Parabola is an easy hat with lines resembling the elegant curve and subtle vertical cables of suspension bridges. Twisted stitches accentuate the strong lines of the ribbing as well as make the hat very stretchy. Parabola also has another twist: it looks as good inside out as right side right.

NOTE: I knit fairly tightly. If you do not knit tightly, you may want to either choose a worsted-weight yarn rather than an aran-weight yarn, or go down a needle size.

NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that the link to Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Slipknot Cast-on in the pattern did not originally work. Here’s the link - there is a description of the cast-on method here, as well as a video.

http://curiousknitter.blogspot.com/2009/09/jeny-stretchy-slipknot-cast-on.html

I’ve uploaded a new version of the pattern to the Knit Picks site that includes this URL. I apologize for any frustration this may have caused!