I love the free pattern Marching Alpacas, but I don’t care for rolled-brim hats, and the checkerboard design above and below the alpacas reminds me too much of the ’80s country décor craze.

I am incredibly picky. This is why I started knitting in the first place: couldn’t find hats that I actually liked.

So what I needed was a way to rework this pattern into something more sleek and a little different. This turned out to be just different enough that I thought I’d post the changes for the use of others.