Though I’ve made dozens of hats, I want to get better at making them. To improve my technique, I look at patterns and stitches to see what I can incorporate into future hats. Particularly I’m looking to see what works, what doesn’t and to develop a better eye for hat making.
What I mean is not just making hats that will fit a human. I’m beyond the fear that a hat won’t fit a person. What I want is to be able to do is look at a hat and see if I can envision it in other yarn weights or look at yarn and see if I have enough for a hat or if I can envision a hat made from oddballs. When I say made from oddballs, not a random amount of stripes but effectively using the odd bits yarn I have in creative ways. I am confident in where the stripes will lie when I use certain self striping yarns for particular patterns in a scarf or afghan. How they work up in different hat patterns is a different story.
My eye for hats hasn’t developed yet. I make plans for afghans and can see the best use of oddballs and color combinations. While hats are smaller, it’s the varied sections: height, crown, brim, circumference means there’s more variables to take into consideration, not to mention style. Is this a close fitting beanie or a slouchy hat? So many options.
My hat making skills have improved and they look good and fit. It’s the learning curve I’ve imposed on myself. It’s not that the skills I have aren’t transferrable to hats, it’s just that I’ve made more afghans and scarves than I have hats. Also, I look for improvements I can make after each project and try to make changes. I’m still learning and willing to try different things. (And I’m still developing an eye for hats.)
Happy crocheting!
Summertime and the thoughts turn to crochet? Maybe not for everyone, though for me, crocheting is a year round pursuit. This month, I’ve been finishing my red scarf goal and I’m on my twelfth scarf and the goal was 10. Before the end of the year, I hope to complete 5 infinity scarves and a few hats for a couple of groups and 28 more sets.
While scrolling through Facebook, I saw that the 
As more yarn is added to the working stash, I give in to the temptation to start another project. Multiple projects is like reading multiple books at a time, As long as they aren’t the same pattern it’s not an issue just picking up where I left off. If I’m working on something with basketweave, I try not to start another project that requires a different number of repeats. Yesterday, a box arrived and a new yarn that I had never tried before was in the box, so I started a hat.
It’s ok to give up on a project. Some projects don’t work out. There’s some yarn that I have that was from a friend’s family that looked lovely. There were two colors of the yarn, both boucle: a cone of black and a royal purple. The purple I unwound from an unfinished project of that my friend never finished. The yarn is lovely, soft and fun, and I thought that would be an attractive yarn to use for a set.
Life’s too short to work with yarn you don’t like. I’ve been getting rid of things in my house that take up space. I have been reading about minimalism lately and though it’s not for me, I can identify things that I want to get rid of – the boucle yarn was it. Actually, I doubt that creative people can really be minimalists. Though I did like having the yarn knowing that my friend had used it or bought it to use for projects and had even started on something, it was a struggle. I have other things to remember my fried by and this yarn does not give me fond memories, so I am letting it go so that someone else may enjoy it.
A year of hats and scarves – won’t that get boring? Not to me. Many people might find making the same thing over and over again repetitive. To keep the projects interesting, I have been using different yarns and patterns or trying the same pattern with different yarn. Lately I have been making coordinates instead of matching the hats and scarves with the same stitch pattern in both, I have been using the same yarn and changing the stitch pattern. The sets are made for warmth and may be the only warm item a person has, so I try to make the hats that don’t have a lot of eyelets or lacy features. There are many different patterns to use for scarves but to have the pattern also match a skull cap/beanie can be limiting unless the design or pattern focuses on color. A few yarns don’t need a lot to make something unique, especially if they are color changing or novelty.
Instead of matching the hat and scarf in a set, I figured why not try to use a different stitch, with the same yarn: A coordinate, instead of an exact match. The yarn is the same and gives a bit more creative freedom to the process. If there are stripes in the hat, there can be stripes in the scarf, but why not mix the stitches and match the yarn. The results have been pleasing. Especially when there are patterns that don’t necessarily lend themselves to a hat or a scarf. Long rows of ribbing can make a scarf curl on the edges and it won’t necessarily work to make a border when using a color changing yarn. A scarf can have a design with a little openwork and still be warm, a hat, not so much.
I’m at the halfway point of the 60 set goal for 2021! Just completed 30 hat and scarf sets and it’s not even April, and I’m still excited about the project. It’s really not so much about being excited about the project as much as making the sets look unique, especially if I’m using similar yarn.
The new yarn that I ordered was tempting me. I went to bed early the night the box arrived and didn’t play with any of the new yarn but the next day however, that was a different story. I selected a new yarn that I was unfamiliar with and started a hat. Within roughly 75 minutes of uninterrupted crocheting from the starting magic loop to weaving in the ends, I had a finished hat. The pattern is simple top down basket weave with two rows of single crochet for the brim.
For my past few projects I have made coordinating hats and scarves, instead of matching ones. The hats and scarves use the same yarn but not the same stitch pattern; which makes it more freeing and fun. Instead of avoiding postwork, I’ve embraced it and use different combinations as shown in a scarf that I used alternating front and back posts in groupings of two to four, made a center section of five front posts and then decreased the number of posts in the same groupings. The odd numbered groups are in the front for one row and in the back for another.
I had to look at the hat and make notes about what I did. Then I had to figure out what the scarf would look like, to keep it from being too wide, since I already knew that I wanted to make the scarf horizontally. I used the notes that I made for the hat to tentatively make notes for the scarf. One section I wanted a little wider, so I added another row of postwork. I showed my mother the notes and she said this makes no sense, she also doesn’t crochet. She showed them to my father and he said this is something you could use. He always teases us about measurements when we are cooking. Baking requires precise measurements, cooking does not, especially when it comes to spices.
With a sketch for a hat and scarf pattern in a notebook I made the hat and scarf again in a different yarn that was a little loftier in weight though still a worsted weight #4 yarn. Using the notes, I was able to follow the pattern without too much editing. For someone else to use this pattern, I need to write more specific language about the rounds for the crown but this gives me a good start and I won’t have to wrack my brain tying to figure out what I did. My notes remind me of handwritten recipes that I have from my grandmother and a late friend – the ingredients are all there, it’s just assumed you know the mechanics.