Love the way the hat turned out but I think it was written unnecessarily complicated. Next time I would not do the slip stitches for the rows leading up to the ears. I have no idea what purpose that serves except to slow me down because I could never remember what I was doing.

I did use a lot of stitch markers which helped me remember where I was. In reality I probably would have only needed one for the beginning of the row and then 1/2 through.

I made the small/medium with bulky yarn and used a US10 needle on the ribbing and a US11 needle on the hat. It was actually fine but slightly large. Next time I’ll go down to perhaps a 7US or 8US needle for the ribbing and maybe a 10US needle for the main part of the hat.

Pretty cute though all in all.