It’s actually almost entirely coincidence that I’m knitting two brioche projects in a row! My dad really likes his gold hat in this pattern and specifically requested that I make another one for him.

Dad picked out the yarn for this (with a bit of a nudge from me towards the Rios), using his birthday month 25% off coupon. (Emy’s coupons rock!) I love how the colors work together; I’d been pretty sure as I looked at them in the skein (though they were more tonally disparate than I would choose personally) but as soon as I knit the brioche set up row it was like magic and they were perfect. :-)

As much as I generally find myself needing to go down a needle size or two to end up with a fabric I like, I think this was a tad too far; if I were going to make this again with Rios I think I’d use 5s, and maybe even swatch with 6s. Dad says he likes how snug it is though.

I forgot—as I unfortunately usually do with this pattern—just how tight you need to pull the yarn change until I was several rounds in, so the first few have a few loose spots that I’m unhappy with (though not unhappy enough to be worth ripping back as much as I would have needed to by the time I noticed them). Oh well.

Per Dad’s request, I made this 13” for a nice deep cuff. He was open to it even being a bit longer than that, but I was unsure whether that might eventually end up with the cuff being longer than the hat itself if it stretched out at all. (It was 12” when I had him try it on for the final decision, and at that point there was about 2” from the cuff to the top of the hat at the back of his head, which is where it’s narrowest the way he wears it.)