I am not overly fond of garter stitch, so I am trying this hat in SS. I did the center panel 8”, then picked up & knit 24 stitches on each side. I knit the side & back section to 7.5”. I knit the neck ribbing to 6.5” on the 68 stitches. Then I attached the gray yarn & did one round of knit, then KFB in every stitch the next round. One round of KFB every other stitch, then bind off.

With the gray yarn, I picked up & knit stitches around the neck & did 5 rounds of ribbing.

It turned out huge.

1/28/23 - I gotta fix it! I took it apart where the neck ribbing stitches were started & ripped up, leaving just the neck ribbing. Even though I thought I had translated the length of the first section by using the gauge for the project, but I was obviously way off. So, garter stitch it is.

I CO 18 stitches for the center panel, then used a small circular needle to pick up 68 stitches around 3 sides. Then I worked up from the ribbing I had left intact (backwards from the pattern construction) about 7”, 60 rows of garter. I did a 3 needle BO with the center panel & the rest of the hat (turned inside out so the ridge was on the inside. I picked up & knit 100 stitches for the face ribbing with the gray yarn & did 5 rounds of ribbing.

Now it fits a normal sized head! Used more yarn for garter stitch, of course, but not sure how much more.