Your hat starts the walk over your ears and finishes it balanced on the back of your head. You push it down, it creeps back up. And the moment you put a hood over it, there is a fist of knitting sitting between the hood and the back of your neck.

This is the short one. It is built to sit close and stay there.

Here's how it works

The crown is shallow. It rises about as far above the cuff as the cuff is deep, which means there is no spare fabric to bunch, sag or ride up. That is also what makes it the beanie you can actually wear under a waterproof hood: it lies flat, the hood goes up over it, and nothing shifts when you turn your head. A tall beanie cannot do that, and most people find out halfway up a hill.

The knit is a chunky two-by-two rib all the way through. A heavy rib has far more stretch and recovery than a fine one, so it pulls on, grips the shape of your head, and springs back instead of gradually loosening off. This is the reason it stays put, and it is the reason one size covers 55 to 60 centimetres without feeling tight at one end of that range or loose at the other.

The cuff is deep, roughly a third of the hat's height, so it doubles the knit across your forehead and around your ears. That band is the part that does the work in a cold wind.

About the acrylic

It is 100% acrylic, and we would rather say so plainly than dress it up. Acrylic will not feel like merino. What it does do is hold its shape through a winter of being stuffed in a coat pocket, go through a washing machine without felting or shrinking, and dry quickly instead of hanging wet and heavy after an hour of drizzle. A thin wool hat that rides up loses more heat than a thick acrylic one that stays where you put it.

The gear it replaces

• The thin beanie that creeps — no weight in the knit, so nothing holds it down.
• The slouchy beanie — all that spare fabric has to go somewhere, and under a hood it goes into the back of your neck.
• Hood only, no hat — keeps the rain off and does nothing at all for your ears.
• A hand-wash-only hat — which is why it is still in the drawer.

What's in it

• Short crown — sits flat under a waterproof hood rather than bunching inside it.
• Chunky two-by-two rib — stretches, grips and recovers, so it does not work its way up your head.
• Deep turned cuff — two layers of knit across the forehead and ears.
• One stretch size, 55 to 60 cm — no size to get wrong, and no measuring your head before you order.
• 18 cm crown to cuff — a short profile that goes under a hood, a helmet or a car headrest.
• Machine washable — or dry clean, if you would rather.
• Stitched leather-look label on the cuff — the detail that stops it looking like a plain tube of knitting.
• Five colours — Light Grey, Yellow, Red, Royal Blue and Oatmeal.

Brimless, unlined and unisex. Suitable for walking and hill walking, dog walking on dark afternoons, camping, working outdoors in the cold, and wearing under a hood in weather that has not been forecast properly.

Short crown. Deep cuff. Stays where you put it.