In reading the other project notes for this pattern, I was a little concerned about the outcome since others seem to find the cast on to be too tight. I found, however, that so long as I cast on loosely enough to be consistent with a bulky weight yarn (as opposed to the variations in thickness of a homespun), that the cast on was just right for me. The first hat I knit with this pattern (mixed berries color way), I did not like the way it was laying, so as of the second hat (Edwardian), I changed the increase row to k 2, m 1. I like the way it lays MUCH better. Also, I only repeated the 8-row section twice on the first hat, but found I prefer the 3 repeats on the second. I also added one extra row of knitting between each repeat.