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This is a post about hats that didn't work. I was definitely in a mood when I pulled this booklet out and started figuring out what I wanted to make. I tried several patterns in this booklet and either they didn't work out well or I was bored with the pattern.  The booklet has 27 patterns or sets. Two are Tunisian crochet, and another 10 are regular crochet. I tried three of the regular crochet patterns. I had bulky yarn so I thought I'd try this one:  So boring. I think this would have been fine, but I'd already made hats similar to this and it seemed like it was going to be pretty boring. It's a rectangle that you seam up and then gather at the top. Yawn. On to the next pattern. This one seemed different than the other hats I've done and used bulky yarn and a K hook.  Maybe some day with the right yarn, but probably not. I started it and somewhere around round four things didn't quite line up. I probably could have figured it out but my patience was low that day and I realized that not only was the pattern frustrating but I also didn't like the yarn I was using for this project. I ripped it out. For my last try from the booklet, I thought I'd try this cute popcorn hat. I really thought this one would be ok but about a quarter of the through using an E hook with Red Heart Super Saver my hands said nope!  popcorn hell I didn't try any of the other seven crochet hats for various reasons. This first set are the hats that seemed like they would be really boring to make:
This second set had several different issues. I didn't have the yarn for the first one. I didn't love the braid on the second one. The third holds together two strands of sport weight yarn and I don't like doing that and I'm not sure I had enough yarn for this hat in that weight.
Last is the granny square hat. This didn't look like it fit quite right so I wasn't willing to risk the time, yarn and sewing ends in for it.  Next week I will have one last hat and then I'll start wrapping the year of the hat up and planning for next year.
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This week's hat is dedicated to Corinna who suggested this pattern book. It has a section with "A Covey of Caps" that were excellent vintage options for this blog. I chose to do the Reversible Ski Hat because it seemed like it would be a great way to use up some scraps and I was intrigued by the reversible part.   From left to right; Peruvian-style Hat, Green Tyrolian Hat, Yellow Cloches Cap, Cowboy Hat, Reversible Ski Hat. This hat uses worsted weight and an E hook. An E hook with worsted weight yarn is typically what I would use for amigurumi so I expected this to turn out pretty dense and structured. This hat is done entirely in double crochet in the round with the rounds joined with a slip stitch. It has a chart to get the colors the way they look in the photo but I ignored that and just tried to use up my scraps.  Green, Blue, Brick Red, and multi colored yarn scraps used for this hat. Not pictured is the gold I added in partway through. The directions were pretty good right up to the assembly part. The photo below shows what you end up with when you finish the crocheting part of the hat.  I considered just folding one side up into the other one and then seam together around the short end. That's the easy way to do this. Their way is a little more complex and the only benefit to their version is that the hat would hold together a little bit better. Here are their instructions:  I was skeptical that this would work and I was partly right. I tested it by loosely doing the overcast seam and then "stuffing one side into the other" and it came out inside out. Maybe I just didn't do it right but it seemed like the only way to do it. Here's what I ended up doing: Turn the hat inside out and fold in half at the center line and do an overcast stitch along the side where your rows were joined.
Once it was seamed, I turned it inside out starting with the small end and ended up with the photo on the right:
I used a pom-pom maker and did each side in matching colors so it would match the hat. The pom-pom sticks out half way on each side. I sewed the small end together a little bit and then stuck the pom-pom in the opening and used the tie from the pom-pom to sew it together the rest of the way.  This hat stands up all on it's own! It's very structured. Getting that pom-pom in right was a little bit fiddly but I got it to work. This is two layers of worsted weight yarn crocheted with a fairly small hook for that weight. It's thick and can stand up all on it's own. It's so thick that I couldn't fold up the brim like the woman in the photo is wearing it without it getting weird.
I got it to work and it technically fits but I'm giving it a 3.5. This isn't a hat I would wear and the instructions could have been better for the assembly. The half pom inside the hat feels a little odd too. I'm sure this is warm but it gives off Who-ville vibes. Maybe that's appropriate for the season?
This is a great idea for a hat and with a few adjustments it might be more flexible. I think you could drop the yarn size down to sport, keep the E hook and get rid of the pom-pom. You'd have to do more stitches and rows to get the size right but you'd have a cozy reversible hat that should have a little more give in it. This week I have a striped beret from the Heads to Toes booklet. I don't really like pom-poms and I wasn't sure about the stripes but I had yarn that came close to the photo so thought I'd give it a try.  This hat uses worsted weight yarn and the pattern gives the amount for the hat and scarf together (4 ounces each of four colors) so I had to guess on the amounts for the hat. I figured that I'd need about an ounce of each color, maybe a little more on the cream stripes. It uses an H hook so I thought this would go fairly quickly and I was right. The directions are pretty well written, especially on the rows that have increases and decreases. It's worked top down, changing colors almost every row. There are a few sections where it tells you to increase the same way you were for the next two rows but it's basic circle increases so it wasn't hard to understand. This took me about two hours to make and it turned out much better than I expected. We were headed out to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum the next day so I sewed the ends in on the way there and then wore it that day. It was a beautiful fall day with temps in the 60s and the hat did a great job of keeping the wind from blowing my hair all over the place without being so warm I was sweating. I even got a compliment from the cashier in the café. I'm considering making a second one in a colors that match my fall jacket a little bit better and giving this one away. Maybe to someone who likes the Minnesota Wild since the colors sort of match those team colors.  Here it is on me at the Arb. The first photo is in the nut tree area and the second is by the grasses. This one definitely gets a 5 out of 5.
This week it's the Checkered Cap for Girls. I considered making the Boy version but it wanted buckram to make the visor more solid and that seemed like more work than I wanted to do.  Because this booklet was issued by a yarn brand company, they give very specific yarns for each pattern. None of those are available today. They all seem to be worsted or aran weight though and I found colors to match their colors in my stash. This pattern uses a size H hook and gives a gauge. I sort of checked the gauge and it seemed close enough. With the H hook, this went pretty quickly even with the constant color changes. The pattern has excellent instructions on how to change colors in the pattern and gave instructions for every row instead of saying something like, "continue in pattern." Overall, this was a well written pattern that worked up quickly and looks pretty good. As I was making it, I felt like I was making a hat in my high school colors (maroon and white) until I got to the brim with the added red and gold. This would be an easy hat to do in team colors.
I took this with when we went to the Arboretum so I could get some photos with a background other than my deck. I'm giving this a 5 out of 5. It was easy to make, the instructions were good, it's cute and it fits!
Next week's hat is done already and is one of my favorites! November will have two hats from this booklet called Heads to Toes. This booklet has both knitted and crocheted hats and um...things for your feet.
The "Toes" patterns include; Indian Moccasins, Clodhoppers, Victorian Boots and Roman Sandals. I'm intrigued by the Victorian boots but the colors they used are pretty terrible. They're the item under the word "Botany" in the photo above. One of the ways you can tell this is from the 70s is that some of the patterns and the names they chose for them are not appropriate today and of course they are all crocheted. We have a Babushka scarf and an entire outfit that is dressed up to look Native American made of a Serapi, Head Band and Pouch (aka poncho, headband and purse). That leaves me with four patterns from this booklet that I can make. Three of the remaining four have brims and want you to crochet some buckram between the layers and I'm just not willing to put that much work into a hat. The checkered hat on the cover will be the first one I make. Some of the knitted hats are fun too. I really like the Swirl Hats. They're unusual but kind of cool. The cowl on the one the woman is wearing looks practical and cozy. The Thunderbird Mittens have that odd fringe that seems like it would get snagged on everything but the hat is pretty nice. The Pom-pon Hat has a lot of pom-pons on it so I guess that name makes sense. I'm not sure I would wear that but it might fit someone else's personality perfectly. I don't know what's going on with the Freedom Hat. Is it called that because there's so much free space in that flap that's folded over her head? (After I posted this a reader gave me a link to this information about Phrygian hats which was very interesting and completely explains why that hat is called a Freedom hat. )
Next week I'll have the finished Checkered Hat to show you!
For this week's pattern, I pulled out one of the Learn to Crochet books. This one is from 1974 and has a dozen or so patterns in it with the Cloche being the very last one in the book.
This pattern uses 3 ounces of worsted weight yarn, a size I hook, 3/4 yard of round elastic. I had some leftover worsted weight Lion Brand Heartland in the color Hot Springs (aka purple) but I didn't have 3 ounces. I had about 2 ounces. I've found that a lot of patterns will give the amount needed as a full skein even if you don't use the full skein. The hat seemed pretty open so I was skeptical that I'd really need 3 ounces. The pattern gives a gauge that I matched so I started. It's worked in the round starting at the top. About half way through the hat I realized two things; I was not going to have enough yarn to do that hat as written and, I didn't want to do the hat as written. It was already close to the right size and since I wasn't going to have enough yarn I decided to cut it from 20 rounds to 15. The last step tells you to hold the elastic along the top of the last round and work over it. What it doesn't tell you is to measure it around your head and tie the ends together at some point. Maybe that's obvious but this is a beginners book and I think they should be a little more specific in their instructions.   I'm giving this a 3.5 out of 5. If I'd done all of the rows it would have been pretty slouchy. Even though I made the elastic shorter it's still kind of loose around my head. The directions could have been a little clearer for the finishing. It mostly fits.
For November, I'm going to pull from a couple of different booklets. The first one is from 1970 and has some interesting patterns.... This week's hat comes from the October 1979 issue of Workbasket Magazine. It is one of five crochet patterns in the issue. The others are a cardigan, a hair-pin lace afghan, a hexagon pan holder and a disco bag. Sidebar: I saw the disco bag listed in the contents and thought, "Interesting! What makes it a disco bag? Is it sparkly or colorful?". It is none of these things unless you decide to make it that way. It's just a regular flap purse made out of regular chenille yarn. I guess that would make it soft and fluffy but that doesn't seem very "disco".
The Shell Stitch hat uses a size H hook and sport weight yarn. I used some leftover Master Knit Lucero in gray and Premier Yarns Everyday Baby in blue. Both are super soft yarns. There is a gauge given and I was close enough to it that I felt fine going on with the pattern. This is another pattern that's worked side to side and then sewn together and gathered at the top. This type of construction worked pretty well for the stripes. I was able to carry the yarn up the sides and hid it in the seam which meant fewer ends to sew in. Any ends I had left on the sides were used to make the seam the same color as the stripe. The instructions were pretty simple and easy to follow. I didn't quite understand why there are fancy stripes that are then folded over so you can't see them. Why is there even a fold? Here is the finished hat, with it folded up and a side view without the fold.
I'm going to give this a 5 out of 5. It fits, the directions are clear and you have the option of wearing it folded up or a little slouchy.
Last month I did the "Bulky Crocheted Ski Mask" and it was very very tight on me. I thought I'd try another ski mask pattern in the leaflet to see if I could get a better result. This is called "Crocheted Ski Mask or Cuffed Hat" and uses four ounces of worsted weight yarn and J hook. It has a gauge that I was a little short on and instead of using a bigger hook I decided to make the large size.
This worked fine. It's a very simple (boring) pattern that's done top down and has no decreases at the bottom. You can see in the photo that it just goes straight down. I don't have a problem with that but if you don't add a scarf the wind could easily blow right up the bottom of the mask. I used one of my favorite discontinued yarns; Deborah Norville Premier in a color that comes pretty close to the one in the leaflet.
I'll give this a 4.5 out of 5 just because it's so open at the bottom I'm not sure it how it work in it's ski mask form.
What should I do for 2023? There are only a couple of months left of the year and I'm starting to think about what I should do next year for this blog. 2022 was the year of the hat. What should 2023 be? I could just keep doing hats. I don't have a shortage of vintage hat patterns. I thought about doing bags, purses, tote bags, etc. I don't know if I could do one a week though. Potholders? I have tons of patterns for potholders. Let me know if you have ideas! This is the sixth pattern from the Leisure Arts booklet, "Caps, Hats and Helmets". This time it's not a cap, hat or helmet though; it's a headband. It uses Afghan aka Tunisian stitch. I think this is the second project I've finished with this technique.  The pattern uses 1 ounce of sport weight yarn and a size G aghan hook and regular hook. This was a great project for some smaller leftover yarn and I had the perfect yarn for this. I forgot to take a photo but it's Knitting Fever Painted Mist in the color Cirque Mystique. I used most of it for this cowl:  The pattern used a slight variation on a basic afghan stitch where it increased on one side and decreased on the other. This gives the finished headband it a bias cut look. I didn't have a size G tunisian hook so I just used a regular G hook and this worked fine. The headband isn't wide enough to need the longer hook. The instructions were easy to follow and didn't make me look up how to do the stitch. They included photos of the different steps to make it even easier. This is a great pattern for someone who is a beginner to tunisian crochet like me. It's worked as a long rectangle that's sewed up in the back and then an edging is added. I made this headband in just a couple of hours. Headbands aren't something I would usually wear. They tend to slide right up my head and look ridiculous but I do love how the yarn did some self striping on this pattern. I'm giving this a 5 out of 5. The pattern is well written for beginners. It's fast and it fits!
October Workbasket Magazines (at least the ones I have) were surprisingly light on hat patterns. The patterns they did have were ones that seemed really boring or were for babies so I decided I would just keep on making the hats in the same booklet I used for September. This week we have the Crocheted Hat with Earflaps. This is the fifth one out of the book. The first three scored high but last weeks ski-mask let me down a little. This week's hat is a little more complicated but not over the top difficult.  This pattern uses worsted weight yarn in three colors. The pattern gives the amount you need as weights: one ounce of gray and a half ounce each of rust and ecru. I weighed some scraps I had to make sure I had enough of each color. I used sky blue instead of gray, dark blue instead of rust and cream for the last color. I matched the gauge given with the recommended G hook. This is worked top down with the edging done at the end and the (short) ties done separately. Overall I didn't think this was a difficult pattern but I had few problems. I know I should over estimate the yarn I need but they gave such specific amounts and I wanted to trust them but I ran out of cream yarn so one of the earflaps has a slightly different cream color.  The next problem is the fit. This was really tight on my head and if I pulled it down to try to mimic the leaflet photo it completely covered my eyes. If I left it above my eyes like the photos below there was a lot of extra space on top of my head. I'm not wearing my glasses in the photo and it isn't because I thought it would look better; it's because I couldn't get them on under the hat. If you look at the magazine photo at the top of the post, it looks like the ear flaps are really far forward and I wondered if they were really covering her ears. The ear flaps are equidistant from each other and probably should have had a little more space in the front. The hat also looks like there's space on top of the model's head too. I actually tried to pull it down to be more like the magazine photo and the ties broke off. The ties were done separately and then sewed on with the yarn and I didn't do a great job of getting them secured. That was the last straw on this hat. It went straight into the garbage.
I'm giving this 1 out of 5 stars. The directions were fine but it doesn't fit. The fit is a little odd in general and their estimate of the yarn required is a little off in the wrong direction.
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