My head measures about 21.5”, so I decided to make the 20” size, given the tendency of Malabrigo to relax and stretch out.

12/15: finished knitting band. Did 7.5 repeats of the twig and berry pattern. I’m blocking it by pinning it out and misting it with water. I’m planning to connect the ends BEFORE picking up the stitches around it (the directions say to connect it AFTER).

12/16: I am a Kitchner stitch wimp. I opted for a three needle bind-off to join the hat band ends, then picked up the stitches along the edge.

12/18: Finished the hat, and I love it. Very cute. It looks fabulous on my styrofoam head form. But my head is bigger than that, and after wearing it for a day, I decided it was a bit out of proportion. So I ripped back to the headband, picked up enough stitches for the 22” size, and finish the hat using those measurements. Now it fits me like the first version fits the styrofoam, except with a bit more slouch. Perfect!

I actually like having the seam that resulted from the three needle bind-off since that makes it easy to find the back. And the short row shaping means there is a front and a back. The short row shaping is a neat idea.

I ended up needing just over 2/3 a skein of Malabrigo Worsted.

The pattern directions are very clear and well written. There’s one slight mis-formatting in the abbreviations section. I think “m1” should be in bold face.

The head band has stretched out to about 19 inches, a great size for me.

January update: I’ve been wearing this hat almost every day, and it is warm, cosy, and IMO, stylish. I really love it. This is a really great pattern for Malabrigo worsted.