Modifications:

• I went down some needle sizes to go with my substitute yarn, as I read at various other projects that this hat is so huge, especially for women. So I used needle US 2 1/2 / 3mm and a 16’’ / 60cm cable. But as I’m a tight knitter, I would use probably needle 3.5mm or 4mm next time, because the hat was quite small before (wet) blocking and the lace pattern didn’t open up enough.

• I measured the knitted “strip” around my head (it was way too short to fit) and added one repeat of each section 1 and 2 to it to make it longer (= section 1: 4x, section 2: 4x, section 3: 3x). See picture with red rectangle, these are the added sections.

• Final measures of my hat: Diameter ~56cm / 22’’ (stretched)

• Didn’t knit the “sl1 wyib” in Row 1 (RS) of Section 2. Replaced with K1 because of the yo before.

• For Row 3 (RS) of Section 2, there seemed to be a stitch missing, so I added one stitch: (…) 8 times, k1, k1, sl1 wyib.

• Brim: Due to the longer “hat body” with the added sections as described above, I picked up 96 sts for the brim (instead of 78 sts) and didn’t increase with M1L, p1 as indicated in pattern because I thought it would get too large then. So I knitted K1tbl, p1 the entire time. Did work out, brim has a snug fit. Joined brim with backstitch as you can see in the picture with the little red arrow.

• Crown: Picked up 91 sts (instead of 78 sts) and worked in P1/K1 rounds only 5 times instead of 8 times as indicated to make hat less slouchy. Used double pointed kneedles here, didn’t work with cable needle any more.

• Finish: Hat was a little small and “stubborn”, so I soaked the entire hat and blocked it. See differences on the picture “Before / After Blocking”.

Thoughts on color combination:

To substitute the original yarn “Brooklyn Tweed LOFT” with my yarn (Madelinetosh Merino Light) and get similiar coloring results in the hat I tried to figure out how the colors are distributed and mixed.

• As you always have to use two strands of two different skeins of yarn together, the hat gets a “tweed-like” look.
• I figured that the color with the most yardage (Color B) has to be the dominant one in the hat. Which would be “Fossil” (“Farmhouse White” for me) for the neutral, lighter hat version.
• Additionally, the brim is in Color B (with 2 rows Color C) - and according to the pictures of the original hat, with this I could assign the yarn colors to the different colors used. (The brim of the original hat is in Color B - which is Fossil“).

Hopefully my theory will work out. :)

After knitting:
It turned out that you can’t really predict the effect your colors will have in the finished hat, except you knit a gauge with every combination (I was too lazy for that). I wanted a more “light-colored” hat, but didn’t consider that the blue of the “rainwater” colorway turned out to be quite dominant.
So I didn’t follow the color instructions for the brim and the crown any more but experimented with the colors until I found the combination I liked most (= only Calligraphy for the brim and only Farmhouse White for the two border rows - combined Callicraphy/Farmhouse White for the crown)

Color analysis:

• Original: Brooklyn Tweed LOFT
• My yarn: Madelinetosh Merino Light

Hat No. 1:

• Color A: Stormcloud / I’ll use: Rainwater
• Color B: Fossil / I’ll use: Farmhouse White
• Color C: Woodsmoke / I’ll use: Calligraphy

Hat No. 2:

• Color A: Snowbound / I’ll use: Silver Fox
• Color B: Stormcloud / I’ll use: Composition Book Grey
• Color C: Faded Quilt / I’ll use: Dirty Panther

Color distribution:
Section 1: AB
Section 2: BC
Section 3: AC
Brim: Color B (plus 2 small rows Color C at the edge)
Crown: Color A

Usage:
Color A: 140yds / 128m
Color B: 160yds / 146m
Color C: 85yds / 78m