I few weeks ago I reached my halfway mark for scarves – 25 out of 50. Last week, I finished my 30th hat. Though hats are smaller than scarves, the hat milestone meant more to me since I haven’t been making hats as long. (Or at least hats that I felt I really liked.) Over half of the hats that I have made this year are top down. I think I prefer bottom up hats – start working at the brim, upward and then decreasing for the crown. I have figured out the math to make several interesting patterns so that the decrease will be even and the crown warmer.
I think I prefer the bottom up method of hats. There are many different ways of making hats. There’s another way that I make hats, side to side and then seam the rectangle/parallelogram up the side. There are only a couple of patterns that I like to make using this method. Top down works but most of the fun and interesting motifs require a lot more fiddling with the math to do the increases so that the pattern goes all the way to the crown.
The more you practice, the more you learn. Each hat and scarf I make, the more I learn. The last few brim to crown hats I made, I tried something new with the decreases so that the crown would be warmer and fewer holes showing through because of the decreases. I can’t say that the idea for making brim to crown hats was a eureka moment. In fact, it was while I was watching some of my knitting friends make hats that way that I figured I could do that and use the motifs that I like that way. It’s not even June yet and I have passed the halfway point for both scarves and hats!
Spring will eventually stick around in Chicago, then summer and then it will be deadline time for the little red hats before you know it…
Happy Crocheting!
