I have a big head and chubby cheeks. So I wanted to make York Slouch to curve around my face. I didn’t have Chunky yarn, nor I liked the bulkiness of thick yarn. So I substituted with the fingering yarns on stash. I used a spreadsheet to make adjustments with my gauge.

For the hat body, I needed something more interesting than garter stitches. I found Brindled calling for fingering yarns that I already had. After completing the brim, I increased the number of stitches to match with Brindled and continued on.

There were several tricks that I did when working the short rows on Brindled:

1. I made German short rows instead of W&T. German short rows look nicer than W&T.

2. I use a removable marker to mark the position that I had to make a turn. It is easier than counting the number of stitches along the way.

3. The short-row stripes can be easier to remember as follows:

Row 1 (RS): K till 8sts before EOR, make SR.
Row 2 (WS): K till 8 sts before BOR, make SR.
Row 3 (RS): K till 17 sts before SR, make SR.
Row 4 (WS): P till 17 sts before SR, make SR.
Repeat R3 and R4 two more times.
Row 9 (RS): K to end of round.
Knit 1 round.

After-thought about the yarns:
I like the alpaca lace yarn blends the colour change well. The Ístex Einband, however, is too scratchy to touch the skin. If I had to redo the hat, I would use Merino wool for the brim.