To go with matching mitts. Plus, the mitts are basically a gauge swatch for the hat.

MC / black in right hand (float on top)
CC / yellow-orange in left hand (float on bottom)

Based on mitt gauge, only doing 8 repeats of leaf chart for sizing to work out. Ended up upping to 9 repeats.

Starting with provisional cast on at the colorwork section. I should have enough black for a folded sewn shut brim, but this way I can decide at the end what length/style brim.

It’s seeming that my hat gauge is smaller than my mitt gauge… pausing to block now, as I didn’t measure the mitts pre-blocking. I may need to rip out and add in another repeat or two. Unblocked, the circumference is 2” too small.

Blocked, still too small. I need one additional leaf repeat to cast on, and I will need additional length before crown shaping starts.

It appears the gauge change was due to my use of 9” circs for the mitts, which was slightly too big, so it stretched out my gauge. Oops!

Re-Cast On 10/14/24
In addition to adding an extra repeat around, doing one additional leaf in length.

Brim Details (since different than pattern):

COWYAK (cast on with waste yarn and knit) provisional cast on (total number of stitches needed for colorwork section) with US3. Knit one round in all black (CC) with US3. Switch to US4 and knit colorwork section from pattern, finish crown.

Go back to US3, pick up stitches from single black round. Because of directionality difference, this is an odd number of stitches, so first round of k1p1 rib, knit first 2 stitches together. k1p1 rib for 11 rows.

Turning row: purl entire row. I picked a purl turning row instead of the fancier methods like slipping stitches to make a permanent fold because the hat has so much negative ease already it couldn’t handle the strechy-ness loss from that method.

Switch to US2 needles to make the interior facing fit better, k1p1 for 11 rows. Don’t bind off - sew shut using “stitch by stitch on a hem” method from Vogue Knitting: The Ulitmate Knitting Book (pg 112 my copy).