Cloche - 1974 - Coats & Clark Learn to Crochet

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....