A Hat Question

Yesterday I was approached by an acquaintance with an unusal request. She had received a hand-knitted hat, mitt and scarf set as a gift and the hat didn't fit. It is too small and no amount of stretching and pulling can keep it from wriggling up to the top of her head, like a yamulka. The hat was "fixed" once by the original knitter, but it still didn't fit properly. The original knitter had washed her hands of the situation (I didn't pursue that) and the hat recipient didn't know what to do.

Oridinarily, I wouldn't tinker with someone else's knitting, but since this hat is otherwise destined to be felted down for its owner's seven year old, I don't feel like I'm overstepping myself here.

For reference, here is the hat.




I'm planning to take some measurements and do stitch and row counts of the hat tonight. I have a couple initial thoughts about how to reknit it a bit larger:

1) Gauge - The yarn used for the hat is very thick. I think that I could increase the size of the needles and reduce the number of cast-on stitches to make the hat a bit larger and still have an acceptable fabric.

2) Brim - The brim of the hat is knit in reverse stockingette stitch. If I replaced this with ribbing, even a p2k1 or p3k1 to maintain the look of purl stitches on the outside of the hat, the resulting hat might resist sliding up the wearer's head better than the original.

3) Seam - The original hat has a rather unsightly seam running up the back. While I appreciate that it is difficult to make a tidy seam with chunky yarn, big needles and a small garment, this one is pretty noticable. Also, I think that using DPNs will let me save a stitch or two that were eaten up by the edges.

Ok, that's the plan. Am I missing anything? Where is my logic lacking?