Okay, so here’s the thing: the gauge on my test swatch for this was freakishly large, and I don’t know why. I’ve never thought of myself as a loose knitter, but the directions called for 18st/26r in 4”, and the label of the yarn says 18st/24r in 4” with 5.0 mm needles, and I got 14.5st/ 20rows in 4” (all stockinette stitch).

I was traveling and had no other needles with me, so I did some math and decided to try the hat with only 60 stitches instead of the 76 called for, and 3 pattern repeats of the celtic knot instead of 4. To make the numbers work out, I extended the 19-stitch chart by one stitch. In the end, I think the size turned out well: snug but not crazy tight. I was going for a snug fit to begin with: my only problem with the black hat I knitted a few years ago is that it feels loose. It’s fine on my head, but doesn’t fight the wind or really feel like it’s holding in the heat.

Added bonus: the whole thing only took one ball of each color.

A further change. Based on a warning from someone else’s notes on this project, when it came time to decrease for the crown--since he or she found the shaping a little loose when done at the same time, as per the pattern--I moved the live main-color stitches off onto waste yarn and finished up in just the coordinating color (inside of hat) first, then went back to the MC stitches and finished off the outside of the hat.

The finished hat feels super-thick and comfy, and definitely holds in the heat.

I found the double knitting a real challenge when working the color chart, actually, because counting the stitches I’d already done was kind of tough for me, counting by twos (“Black-green, black-green, black-green, black-green, green-black, green-black, black-green. Wait, green-black…”), and I found a surprising number of mistakes on the inside--though not on the outside, my main surface--that I had to notice, ladder down to, and fix up. Maybe 4 or 5, in all.