Brim is stiffened with wire

Stretches

My first version of this hat stretched and stretched and is now really far too big, so I made this one following the pattern closely for the crown, except for starting with a magic ring.

I added one row to the pattern rows.

The brim kept going out of shape when made with dc and half thickness loudspeaker wire, so I remade it using sc and the full wire thickness. The top three pictures show the final version of the hat.

For the brim, I put 3 sc in each space of the pattern rows with no extra stitches.

Using sc:
I worked 9 stitches then an increase on the first row of the brim, then added one more stitch in every other row before the increase. Row 2 I did not increase. Row 4, inc after 5 sts and again after every 11.

Up to 16 stitches before each inc; on the next row I did 23 then inc, and went on adding one stitch per row up to 13 rows. I offset every other set of increases.

It felt too small while making but it fits better now that it’s finished. It doesn’t look as pretty as the other hat but this one I can wear.

(For my first attempt I used the loudspeaker wire halved (just one core) and only used the yarn single for the final row. The ends of the wire poked out a bit and I sewed them in using the tail of the yarn. It gave a much lighter hat but one where the brim a) let in too much light and b) kept losing its shape.)