This week's hat comes from a pattern book that has no copyright date.  We can narrow down the year a little bit based on the yarn used in it.   The hat pattern uses Lily Rug Yarn, Art 241.   From the few sources I can find online, the yarn was made from 1937 -  early 70s.  Based on the style of the cover photo, I'm going to guess this is late 60s. 

The booklet never tells you what the weight of the rug yarn is but it seems like most rug yarn is either a worsted weight or bulky weight.  This pattern does give a gauge so that should be enough to figure it out.   Of course, I totally ignored that and tried a worsted weight yarn with the suggested I hook as a practice run.  I finished a very small hat and then measured my gauge which was much too small.  None of the other yarn I had gave me the right gauge so I ended up needing to buy yarn for this project. 

We went to Joann's to get yarn. It seemed like the 6 weight yarn would be too big and the 5 weight was to thin. And then Joel found this on and end cap and on sale:

Now we can start the pattern. The hat pattern takes up less than three inches on the page and starts out easy working top down to through row 9. Then it tells you to join the contrast color and work the same pattern as on scarf pockets for six rows. Here's where the pattern starts to be questionable. If you work the first 6 rows of the pocket you will end up with the pattern I have on the small hat.  To get the hat pattern you need to start at row 3 of the scarf and switch the colors.  

The flower is a long strip of increases that are kind of scrunched up and sewn together. Once you have the strip done, the directions say, "sew flower as illustrated".

This turns out pretty cute. I think the matching scarf would be cute with the pockets too.

This pattern gets 4 out of 5 stars. If the pattern was less confusing at the end I would have given it 5 stars. The gauge issue was mostly a yarn substitution issue and if I'd used their suggested and discontinued yarn it probably would worked right the first time.

The March patterns are all coming from a 1974 Spring-Summer Good Housekeeping Needlecraft magazine I picked up in a used bookstore in Fergus Falls! I'll show you those and some other fun things from the magazine next week.

The hat for this week is from the February 1973 edition of Workbasket Magazine.  Here is their photo.  She looks so happy!

This pattern is very simple. There are 11 rounds of double crochet before the popcorn stitch and it's done in a classic hat style with increases up to round six where you do the rounds with the same number of stitches. The directions for the popcorn stitch take up more room in the magazine than the rest of the hat. 
It tells you to use a G size hook and knitting worsted weight yarn or what you need for gauge but then only gives a gauge for the knitted sweater. I didn't have enough bright pink to do the color in the pattern so I went with the yarn below.

This hat is described as "close fitting".  I'd describe it as small and decorative.  It barely comes down to my ears. To make this more than a decorative hat you could add another three rows before the popcorn stitch.  

Overall this is an easy hat, the directions are good and it's cute when done but just not very practical without some adjustments.  I'll give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Next week I'm doing a hat that looks like it might be bigger than both of these and uses "rug yarn".  Rug Yarn weight is a mystery but at least this time the pattern gives a gauge!

I thought this pattern would go well.  The instructions are pretty clear and since it's worked flat and sewn up, it was pretty easy to do the actual crochet part.   Things are not always as easy as they look though.

​First, here's the yarn I used; Deborah Norville Everyday and some vintage Columbia Minerva.  Both are 100% acrylic but the Everyday yarn is much softer.   I don't think this played a roll in how these hats turned out.

This pattern says to use a size H hook for the hat and it tells you how to change colors which is nice for anyone who might be new to crochet.  This is crocheted from the brim up.

Directions start out with chain 72 to measure approximately 17 inches.   I used the H hook, chained 72 and measured.  It was more than 17 inches so I dropped the hook size down to a G.   This time I got 17 inches with 72 chain stitches.  Gauge achieved!  

You start out with a few rows of single crochet for the brim and then use higher stitches to start the ripple portion.   The directions were pretty well written.  Once I had the flat piece ready to sew up I knew that the gauge was either off or the woman in the photo was much smaller than she appeared.
Here's the magazine photo next to what I got with a G hook that I thought matched their gauge.

Maybe there was a typo in the gauge so I did another hat with the recommended hook and totally ignored their directions that 72 chains would be 17 inches.

This looks better but it still barely covers my ears and I even did an extra row because it still looked small after I finished the rows in the pattern.   Did people have smaller heads in 1981? 

If you have this pattern I'd suggest going up another hook size and possibly adding additional rows if you want something that covers your ears.

I'll give this pattern 3.5 out of 5 stars. It's fine, not great.  Ignore the gauge and trust your instincts on this one.  

​Next week, I'll review the popcorn stitch hat pattern where I will ask again, "Did people have smaller heads back in the 70s and 80s?"