Ribbed Crochet Hat for My Dad

I promise that this blog will return to a variety of crafts after the holidays. But for now, I’m crocheting during any free time that I have. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! And I still have loads of presents that need to be made. Should I have started earlier? I’ve been thinking about this, and I think that it’s good that I waited. A few things I crocheted earlier aren’t being given as gifts after all. I keep finding things that I want to make, so the last minute deadline is helping to force me to make up my mind.

Matthew is modeling the latest project off of my crochet hook – a ribbed hat for my dad. I made it to match the fingerless gloves/mittens that I made for him earlier this week.

It’s from another pattern that I discovered on Ravelry – here’s the link. I didn’t end up following the pattern very precisely – most obvious in the fact that this isn’t an ear flap hat. I used Vanna’s Choice yarn – such a cheesy sounding yarn (sorry, Vanna). It was definitely a thicker yarn than the pattern called for, because when crocheted with the F crochet hook she suggested I ended up needing to follow the “wee noggin” pattern. Actually, I had to go even smaller than that.

My favorite part of this pattern was learning a new way to create a crochet ribbing. Instead of crocheting in the back loops, like I explained in my cowl pattern, this ribbing is worked using front post double crochet alternating with single crochet. This method allowed me to switch yarns to create the pattern on the hat brim, since it’s worked in the round. I plan on using that technique for other projects, like headbands.

The hat top is crocheted separately from the rim, and then joined with a slip stitch. That means that the hat top looks small until it’s added onto the brim. In my case, what seemed to be a too small hat suddenly became a slouchy hat once I added the brim. And it was too long for the ear flaps to make sense. But I like it, so I decided not to frog any stitches and to leave it as is.