Hats are FLYING

My twisted witch hats have been flying off the shelf, so to speak.  I sold 2 on Poshmark, 2 on etsy, and another 1 on etsy that was a custom order.  They really are fun!  I enjoy making them though I will say I’m sad that I’m out of the Caron Tea Cakes yarn AND it’s been discontinued.  I don’t know why; it really was pretty and lovely to use.   I had Ginger Spice and Green Tea and both had beautiful color changes. I’m down to 2 of the Ginger Spice hats left for sale with 1 I was planning on keeping for myself.

Hats!

I’ve been thinking about patterns lately and specifically about the base design of things.

For example, winter hats.  There are a number of ways you can do one.

1. Make a chain long enough for a head, 21 inches is usually good.  Do your stitches back and forth about 7-8 inches high.  Sew the long ends together, then sew around the top and draw it together to close.  Finish the bottom border. The trouble with this one is, you have a seam and the top will feel bulky.
2. Make a chain long enough for a head but form a loop.  Do your selected stitch AROUND about 7-8 inches high, starting with a border or not.  Sew around the top and draw it together to close.  This one has no seam but the top is still bulky.
3. Same as 2 but instead around 5 inches up, begin to add some decreases to make the end hole smaller. Then sew around and drawn in.  This has no seam and the top is smoother.
4. Start from the top and expand out using increases and work down.  This one completes a smooth beanie type of look and I feel looks the most professional.  The only trouble is making sure the end result is big enough for the head, since you aren’t figuring that out with the initial chain.

Twisted Witch Hat

Oh my gosh I love this pattern.  I’ve made 3 hats so far and here’s my findings.

With a bulky yarn (6) like Caron Tea Cakes or Lion Brand Wool-ease, you don’t need to double strand.  Also, the child size is perfect for my head using yarn like this.  This was the first attempt which initially came out WAY WAY too big.  I frogged half of it and went down a hook size (8 to 6).  It was still a little loose but still wearable.

Then I tried another with the wool ease I had and some Lion brand Landscapes woven in at the hat band and top.  I like this one A LOT.

I love am in love with the reverse sc stitch for the border.  I originally learned it on the child car seat cloak but it REALLY comes out nice on the hats. I used some dusty blue scrap I had for the border.

I also tried the green hat again,  which was done in a frogged blanket of Caron Cakes Green Tea yarn in the child version.  It fits PERFECT.  I really think for most heads the child version is just fine for 5 or 6 weight yarns.  I would probably only do adult if I was using a skinnier double-strand 4 like Caron Simply Soft.

Though i wouldn’t advise using a slick  yarn on this

Pretty quick to work up but hard on the hands to do all the backpost SC’s in the 2nd row.

Beaded Crochet Hat

I found the free pattern for the beaded crochet hat here https://www.5littlemonsters.com/2018/01/bead-stitch-crochet-hat.html and I’ve tried a few versions of it with different  yarns.  I can’t seem to do the whole pattern and have room to do 2 repeats of the bead stitch, 3 rows of the knit stitch AND do a ribbed border.  I tried using Caron Cupcakes which is a 3 yarn and started with HDC’s instead of the DC’s at the top:

but I had to just do a regular DC at the bottom, otherwise the hat would have been way too long.

I also tried using a bulky wool blend yarn also using HDCs on the top:

but couldn’t do a third row at all.

Then I tried a black version in a super bulky yarn using SC’s at the top and also made it to the second row of beaded stitches, couldn’t possibly do a third row of knit, plus a ribbed border.  I don’t get it.  Either this hat comes out way waaaaaaaay too long or someone is using a sock yarn, or something?

Cute pattern though.  I will also note that no matter what yarn  you use, 3, 4, 5 or 6, the beaded stitches WILL have gaps in them.

Support Hooker

I did tech support for 18 years and although I’m now in implementation I still do a lot of support.  I guess there is really no getting away from it.  That being said I feel like I should give myself some kind of support title in regards to patterns I try because I almost always make some changes to improve it (in my opinion).

For example, there is nothing wrong with the braided cowl pattern.  However, I feel that if you chain 10 instead of 13, and DC 20 into it instead of 23, it fixes a few things.

1. the center hole isn’t as big so you can use reasonable sized buttons like 1” with no problem
2. the center hole isn’t as big so when you braid the loops together, they fit more snugly and don’t flare up at the edges as much.
3. 20 dc into a 10 chain leaves less spread between the stitches to make a more consistent full loop.

Just my thoughts.  I tried it on a cowl and I thought it came out better that way.  And this was after I tried this cowl using a thick homespun yarn, a solid 4 Caron One Pound yarn, and a 3 Lion Brand mandala yarn.