This yarn was part of a Loopy box of love (thank you so much--what a spirit lifter!) and is a belated Christmas cast on for a dear friend who recently told me she likes hats. It goes to show my assumptions aren’t always spot on, as I thought she didn’t like hats at all.

I’m neglecting the author’s 1x1 ribbing between reverse stockinette welts and instead inserting brioche. I’m hopeful that it won’t eat up too much yarn, but it’s more true to the actual hat.

I also cast on 100 stitches (using Wurm, another favorite folded hem hat) to give the hat a bit more room. I don’t like tight hats.

1/2/2018
I thought I’d add some notes just in case I try it again or if someone else tries the hat with brioche instead.

The folded brim is nice, but the pictures of people wearing the original CC hat makes it look a little deeper. That might help its warmth potential, as the reverse stockinette welts are pretty thin compared to the brioche and brim (my brim mostly covers my ears, but not totally).

Second, the brioche substitution is a piece of cake. I looked at a few videos for one-color brioche and it tripped me up initially, but it wasn’t as complicated as some of the tutorials insisted. Slip the single stitches with the respective yarn over and purl or knit the wrapped ones. It even works with the stitch marker. I found that the Unapologetic Knitter’s video was helpful after several watches.

The pattern calls for 2 St st rounds between every section. I did that for the first welt and thought it jutted out a little more than the pictures of the original CC hats, so I modified down to one rest round. In hindsight the 2 rows may look better. The hats have crept their way into the mainstream, so I might look at one (especially the inside) sometime and make a decision.

The closure for the hat isn’t my favorite. The original pattern calls for 86 stitches and only two decrease rounds (k2tog across) spaced three rounds apart, which leaves you with 22 stitches to pull the yarn through. That seemed like too many in my experience, so I added a third decrease round (after two rest rounds) and got it from 100 to 50 to 25 to 13. It makes the top a little wavy though…so it might benefit to do a more standard flat decrease (every other or every row in a star pattern or something). I’ll chew on it.

The fit is fine (the brioche sections are very thick and pretty warm) and the knitting was quick and fun, so I’m happy with the project. I will definitely venture into more single color brioche in the round as a result of this project. After reading some other project page notes I might try a twisted rib cuff next time.

I may also add a variation of this pattern to my repertoire of baby shower knits…how trendy would it be to have a baby wearing a CC hat? New moms might eat it up (ha, they’re probably already available, but I don’t shop a lot).