Crochet Hat Pattern: Vertical Stripes with Curliques

Red Heart acrylic yarn "hot pink" and "spring green"

I made this hat as a riff on the pumpkin baby hat crochet pattern at FaveCrafts, which was the very first thing I crocheted for Jane. I was able to make this hat larger than the newborn size just by increasing the starting chain and making more rows. I omitted the pumpkin stem and added several more curliques. Here's what I did for a toddler-sized hat:

In color A (green), chain 30.

Row 1: In back loop only, double crochet in third chain from hook and each stitch across.

Note: this is tough to do into a chain, and it's not a huge deal if you just regular double crochet into the chain -- or make a foundation double crochet chain.

Row 2: Chain 3, turn, and double crochet in each double crochet. Drop color A and pick up color B (pink) to complete final double crochet. Do not fasten off/keep color A attached.

Note: in my example hat shown above I crocheted in back loops only on every row. But it actually looks better with crochet in both loops when crocheting in the same color (on even rows).

Row 3: Chain 3 (with color B), turn and in back loop only double crochet in each double crochet.

Row 4: Chain 3, turn, and double crochet in each double crochet. Drop color B and pick up color A to complete final double crochet. Do not fasten off/keep color B attached.

Note: there will be a loop from where you stopped crocheting with color A to when you pick it up again here. This will be the top of the hat and is fine because you will crochet over it. Fewer ends to weave in!

Repeat rows 3 and 4, alternating colors A and B until you have 28 rows (each stripe is two rows, for a total of 14 stripes).

Line up the short edges of your work to create a tube. With the wrong side out, use one color (whichever you do not want as the top of your hat, in my case green) and loosely slip stitch the last row of double crochet to the starting chain. Fasten off that color.

Note: the right side of the work will look layered from crocheting in back loops only when changing colors. When you're working odd rows the right side is facing you.

At the top of the hat, with right side facing, pick up the other color (in my case pink) and evenly single crochet around the tube. After you reach the starting single crochet, single crochet two together. Work this stitch continuously around until the hat top is complete. Fasten off that color.

Create the curliques: Chain 15 then 2 single crochet in each chain. Fasten off, leaving tail for sewing. Repeat for number of curliques desired (I made six for this hat).

Note: you can change the length of the curl with a longer starting chain, and you can make a tighter curl by doing 3 single crochet in each chain. Also experiment with double crochet (starting in third chain from the hook) or half-double crochet (starting in second chain from hook) to make slightly fatter curliques.

Arrange the curliques as desired and sew to top of the hat. Weave in ends, roll up bottom cuff of hat and enjoy!

Note: I found that sewing the curliques together, weaving in almost all the ends and then sewing that mega-curlique to the top was easier.

Let me know if you have questions or corrections. This is my first try at writing down a pattern, so hopefully it makes sense to someone else. I just love this hat so much I thought it would be useful to others too.

Also the hat is easy to customize to any size head -- just make the starting chain long enough to go from crown of head to brow bone plus some extra for the cuff and crochet rows until the tube matches the head circumference (or a little smaller, as this will stretch if you use acrylic yarn like I did).

Another version I made -- this one I crocheted in back loops only when changing colors instead of every row.
And I made 32 rows before I sewed up the tube and crocheted the top so it is big enough to fit Jane's noggin.

1 comment:

Julia said...

Hi Mari,

This is Julia from FaveCrafts. Your hat looks great - I'm so glad you found the pattern on our site and put your on spin on it! Thanks for sharing your work and inspiring others to crochet!

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