Winter into Summer Hat?

I’m starting to get excited about this hat pattern I’m working on. I’ve been trying 4 different weights of yarn, 3 in cotton, 1 acrylic, for this hat that would be good for Spring, Summer, and Fall, then I thought why not try a wool blend for Winter? I think I might even have a skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease in worsted to use. One basic pattern, 4-5 different weight hats. With custom sizing, it could be for child through adult. Even though I think it would be a fairly simple pattern, there will be needed the basic knowledge of how to increase evenly working in the round for a flat circle, because even though I will have the first few rounds written out with where to place the increases, it will be up to the crocheter to continue the increases until the desired measurement is reached. There will be math involved also. I will have the equation where the crocheter will insert the desired head circumference to get the diameter needed before the decrease round is made, along with an example of how I got it for my small head. This will be a very slouchy hat, so it may seem huge at first, but it should turn out to be the correct size in the end.

The idea that is the Winter one will, of course, be heavier and warmer with the wool blend. Then the Summer one would be kind of lacy mesh-like, and a little bit snood-like, in a size 5 thread like Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Thread, weight category 0 lace acrylic thread, or any size 5 cotton thread, but it seems there is a lack of size 5 cotton crochet thread on the internet. I have a ball of Aunt Lydia’s Fast Five cotton crochet thread in my stash, but it seems to have been discontinued. I think size 10 cotton thread would be too fine of a thread for this project. The Bernat Handicrafter size 5 thread surprised me that it is an acrylic thread, because it has the look and feel of mercerized cotton, in my opinion. The nice thing is that it’s fully machine washable and dryable, unlike cotton thread. The lacy mesh-like-ness of the Summer hat would be nice, light, and breezy, and you could tuck long hair up into it like you would with a snood. Then there would be for Spring and Fall, maybe 2 different ones, like one for early-mid Spring/mid-late Fall when the weather is still on the cool side, but not as cold anymore/starting to get cooler/colder, but still on the, using a cotton, like Patons Grace which is a weight category 3 light cotton yarn, to mid-late Spring/early-mid Fall when it’s warming up/cooling down but still kinda on the warmish side, using a cotton, like Aunt Lydia’s Baker’s Cotton or Aunt Lydia’s Fashion 3, which are both a weight category 1 super fine cotton thread, in which the stitches would be slightly mesh-like due to using a hook that is about 5 or 6x’s larger than the recommended hook on the label, but still heavier than the Summer version. The Baker’s Cotton does seem to be just slightly heavier than the Fashion 3 though, but once I have hats made from both, I’ll be able to assess that better. I also think the neat part of this hat idea, no matter what season, not just Summer, is that it would be a good “bad hair day” hat. With the slouchiness of the main body and the fit of the band, you can tuck long hair inside of hat, just like you would do with a snood. My original hat that I made about 8 years ago, when I had very long hair, using the now discontinued yarn, Bernat Cool Crochet, I would tuck my hair up into it often. So, yeah, I’ve put a lot of though into the making of this hat.

Even though I will be writing the pattern with the ch3 at the beginning of each round to act as the first dc of each round, I highly recommend trying out the Chainless Starting Double Crochet to replace the ch3. Moogly has a great tutorial for this stitch that includes both video and pictures along with the written instructions. It took me some practice to master this stitch, but it is so worth it! It has changed my crochet life! The beautiful thing about this stitch when working double crochet in the round is that it makes the “seam”, where you start/end the rounds, practically invisible. I highly recommend this stitch for any project made using double crochet! Working flat? No more holes at the beginning of a double crochet row that you would normally get with beginning the row with a ch3. It is totally worth learning!

No photos until I get them all finished though 😀

May 4, 2015 | Categories: crochet, crochet patterns, musings | Tags: crochet, crochet pattern, hat, musings | Leave a comment