Mom wants a hat instead of mitts to go with her vest. Although, I am sure she would take mitts too.

Ah ha! Katrin Schubert - is the queen of brioche hats. Sure enough, she has a free basic pattern which is just what I wanted.

AND… LET’S GET TWISTED
Here’s how you ‘pay’ for this hat.
German Twisted CO video by VeryPink Staci Perry

Telling myself that if I can get this down, it’ll really impress my knitting buddies. Worth it, right??

p.s. While this CO frogs alright, the yarn is getting nappy. Note to self: practice on waste yarn.

CO: In 12’s: 84, 96, 108, 120

Went with 120 because that is what fit just barely enough to go around my 16-inch circ.

A little nervous that it will be too big. But the pattern is a heavier weight yarn on US 6’s. EspaceTricot’s Harlow looks to be 96 sts, but not sure about their cast-on.

Did a bunch of rows and put it on a longer cord. Fits my mom well. Measured her head. 8” to crown, so that’s 2” per section for 4 sections.
. Section 1 = Viper:Viper
. Section 2 = Viper:DH
. Section 3 = DH:Viper
. Section 4 = DH:DH

Crown shaping begins at Section 4. So I can estimate that 1/2 of my Viper gets used for Section 1, the other 1/2 for Sections 2+3. I’ve been weighing my yarn, and it looks like I am on track for using 16-17g, which means I will use about 32-34g. And I’ve got 39g. Get ready to sweat!

Woohoo! I made it with just 5g of the Viper remaining!

Switched to US 2 dpns for the very top of the hat.

I find the brim CO is tight compared to the fluffiness of the brioche. Might be something I did - will ask a knitting buddy who uses the same CO a lot. It looks great though!

Dirty Harry (darkest): 53.5gt - 28.0gr = 25.5g used
Viper: 39.1gt - 4.8gr = 34.3g used

Brim to crown = @8”

IDEAS
If I don’t have enough Viper, perhaps I could do it two color for a folded brim and just two tones of DH for the crown? I’m not feeling a slouch - maybe something a little more fitted.

Nancy Marchant has a number of brioche hats which are no longer in publication. I hope she comes out with a book of them. They used to be on her website, but are now gone.

Andrea Mowry’s Harlow is a nice basic brioche hat. Kinda feeling Scroogey about paying $6 for it. The hardest part of the hat is managing the brioche decreases. She decreases in 4 lines which looks nice. Is this something I could figure out on my own?

EspaceTricot’s Harlow is quite sharp looking
. uses US 2.5 and 4 needles (smaller for brim?)
. 48 brioche pairs

knitsanddolls’ Harlow uses US2 needles and said less than 20g per color!