yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice (almost a full skein)
needles: size US 10 / 6.0 mm
I made one huge modification while knitting with Jenny's Jul pattern -- I knit it with heavy worsted weight yarn. The pattern itself calls for a very light DK weight yarn and sizes 4 and 6 needles, but I wanted to work with what I had on-hand, so sizing it up was done.
When you use a thicker weight yarn than the pattern calls for, you have to make several calculations. First, your cast on number must go down, sometimes drastically.
When you decrease your cast on number, you need to keep a few things in mind:
1. Am I able to keep the ribbing on the hat brim the same?
2. Will the stitch pattern be disrupted?
3. Will I need to alter the decrease sections any?
In the case of Jul, the stitch pattern and decreases were based off the same number as the ribbing, so as long as I decreased by an even 4 stitches I was in good shape. This is not always the case, and I've been burned halfway through a hat before when using different yarn -- if you're going to do this, be sure to read the entire pattern and check your numbers before you start!
I love the way the Jul hat turned out -- I'm sure it's gorgeous with the right weight yarn, but this thicker weight makes for a nice unisex hat that's super warm when the weather turns colder!
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