Quick little knit that was kept interesting by the colorwork. I could have done without the gauge and size drama though.
Circumference - the pattern indicates the body circumference is 20.5” at a gauge of 5.5 sts/inch. On size 4s I came out to 5.75 sts/inch and 7 rounds/inch. Going up to a size 5 needle resulted in too loose of a fabric and was under 5 sts/inch. So I stuck with my size 4s, knowing I’d need to do a little tweaking for height. I did not adjust the circumference (number of stitches around) since I have a small-ish head and wanted it to fit tight. The end result was pretty tight but it fits and I expect it will stretch out. I could have gone with it a bit longer.
Pattern Mods:
- Cast on 112 and just did a 3x1 rib over 11 rounds for the brim - none of the decreasing in the pattern. This was two more rounds than the pattern to add length (see next note).
- The first step on the body is to knit 5 rounds - I knit 8 total, again to add length. Here’s about where math went wonky. Based on the row gauge and the number of rows per the pattern I should have had about 2.2 inches knit so far. I knew my row gauge was off a bit but only by about 1.5 rounds per inch. I was no where near the 2.2 inches (mine was more like 1.5 inches). So, fuzzy math aside, I added 5 rows to the pattern between the brim and body.
- I did the same round exercise when I got to the crown shaping and now my hat was too tall! So I needed to eliminate rounds. In the crown shaping section I only knit one round between the decrease rounds (6-8, 10-11 and 13-14). This eliminated 4 rounds.
- In the grand scheme I only added one round and could have possibly knit the pattern without any mods. But, I actually would have preferred the hat to be longer (I ended up 1/4 of an inch longer than the pattern length). I think a 9 inch beanie would be better for me.