My fall is consumed with birthday knitting for the grands so I only managed one hat for this charity, promoted by TKGA. Perhaps next year I can start earlier!
Decreases:
As did many others, I struggled with maintaining the pattern in the dec rounds. The strategy that worked best was to look at the chart row above the dec to see which color should be on top then work a right or left dec accordingly. Although I attempted to make notes, my record is incomplete. Where the colors abut was the most difficult to figure out..keep leaning toward the CC line until the sts meet. With MC, K2tog at the last junction which will place a CC over the MC and position the MC on the needle next to the CC ready for the next rd.
Other changes:
CO 90 sts based on other knitters’ notes about the hat being very large. Used Old Norwegian CO.
Worked 7 rds of ribbing in MC then started the chart and worked two more rds of ribbing (total of 9 rds of ribbing). Because there isn’t much stretch in stranded ribbing, I opted out of that for most of the ribbing. CO 108 and work corrugated ribbing as per pattern would likely still provide a snug fit against the forehead and definitely flatten the top some.