1. Overnight mail is not permitted. Any other type of mail by any carrier is permitted as long as it is not overnight delivery. Delivery confirmation is always a good idea.

2. If you receive a death hat, you are required to mail your assassin your unfinished hat. If you didn’t have a chance to start a hat, you must mail enough yarn to make a hat to your assassin, or return their death hat to them. It is simply not acceptable to receive a death hat and not send your unfinished hat or yarn to your assassin. Hat Wars reports to the Naughty Swappers List on Ravelry. If you do not follow through with participation and don’t contact the Supreme Commander, you will be reported to Ravelry as a Flake.

3. When you are killed, you must mail your unfinished hat to your assassin as soon as possible. As soon as possible means no more than 2-3 days.

4. Communication is very important. On the 4th week of the war, if you are still alive, you will find your name on the Leaderboard linked into a form. Once a week, starting on the 4th week of the war, you must stop by the leaderboard and click on your name, and click on your status (waiting on unfinished hat, working on hat, dead, retired, etc.) Periodically, I also email everyone for an update on their status. If I email you and don’t receive a response within 4 days, and you have also not checked in for 2 weeks in a row, you will be marked as retired and out of the game.

5. You are expected to work as diligently as possible on your weapon. Your target should expect their death at any time and live in fear of you. If you are not able to kill your target within a reasonable amount of time, please be kind to them and let them know, along with letting the SC know.

6. If you are killed, please be kind and send along a note with your unfinished hat to let your assassin know where you left off and which pattern you were using.

7. Any modifications of the pattern must be agreed to by the Supreme Commander.

8. Be kind to your fellow warriors and treat them as you wish to be treated. Everyone crochets and knits to the best of their ability, and while smack talk is encouraged, unkindness is not. Violations of this rule will result in disqualification.

9. A weapon which is declared a misfire by the Supreme Commander can not kill a target, and must be mailed back to the assassin who sent it within 2-4 days so they can fix it. Misfires are determined on an individual basis by the Supreme Commander and the decision of the Supreme Commander is final. Hats significantly off gauge, with dropped stitches and/or which have significantly failed to follow the pattern may be declared a misfire. This is a wild and wooly competition. Your expectations should be that your assassin has put their best efforts into creating the weapon they send to kill you, and weapons should be accepted as such even if they are not perfect. This is not a competition about perfection - it is a bloody crocheting and knitting competition - and misfire rulings will be very rare and difficult to obtain.

An example of significantly off gauge is where the hat is more than 1 stitch per inch off gauge.

An example of not crocheted or knit according to the pattern means that the pattern was not followed. Some examples are when the hat contains mistakes in the pattern stitch or does not contain the correct number of stitches indicated in the pattern and no waiver was previously given by the Supreme Commander, or were made with the wrong weight yarn. For example, the pattern calls for fingering or sock weight yarn, and the hat is crocheted or knit with worsted weight yarn.

10. Pre-crocheting or pre-knitting is not permitted, and is grounds for disqualification. Pre-crocheting or pre-knitting means any form of early crocheting or early knitting, including but not limited to, starting a new hat before receiving your dead target’s unfinished hat without receiving prior approval from the Supreme Commander.

11. If an assassin receives an unfinished hat which would constitute a misfire if the hat had been completed, it is the assassin’s responsibility to correct the hat. A misfire can not kill, even if the mistake happened in the unfinished hat received from a previous crocheter or knitter and were not your fault.

1. When mailing to the United Kingdom, a description and value on the back of the package is needed. A value of £2 or £2.50 can avoid problems with customs and avoid targets paying a fee to collect the package from the postal service. The information on the back of the package can look something like:

Description: Hat
Value: £2.50

2. When mailing within the United States, delivery confirmation is a good idea. Delivery confirmation from the US Postal Service is inexpensive and will indicate when the weapon has been delivered to the target’s home post office. Unfortunately, delivery confirmation from the USPS does not indicate when the package is delivered to the actual destination – just when it is delivered to the post office nearest the destination address.

3. If you want to mail your weapon in a manner which requires a signature by your target, please contact your target first to make sure this is okay. UPS in particular can delay delivery for several days while they try to get a signature.

4. Make sure your target is okay with knowing that you have mailed your weapon before you tell them that you have mailed it. Many warriors enjoy the anticipation of checking the mail every day to see if they are dead or if they live another day, and letting them know ahead of time when you have mailed your weapon can destroy the anxiety and fun of walking to the mailbox not knowing if today is the day.