Crochet Hats

I was busy crocheting hats in January.  There was plenty of regular sewing going on in the costume shop during the day so it was nice to crochet at night or on the weekends.

I made two hats.  For myself, no less!

(Side note: How do you like my canning-jars-full-of-rice-hat-stands?  Trust me, they are much better than the goofy pictures I tried to take of myself in the bathroom mirror wearing the hats. )   :)

The purple and silver one was first.  This hat grew from the top down, then shrank as I pulled out rows to adjust things, then grew again, then shrank, then grew, etc.  My family laughed at me every time I'd go look at it (on my head) in the bathroom mirror, decide it wasn't quite right and rip it out again.  In the end, though, I ended up with a hat I really like and I learned a lot along the way.  It was a win-win.

The brim at the bottom is kind of fun - it curls up and makes it cute.  The only drawback is that it stretched pretty quickly with wear and so it's a little big.  I wear it on medium-cold days when I need a little something on my head but its not super cold.  I've also discovered its a good hat for when I'm wearing a ponytail in my hair - the hair lump fits nicely under the looseness of the hat.

After figuring out 'my size' with this particular yarn combo, I set out making hat number two.  I sized down one hook size to make it a little denser/tighter and also left out one row of increases so the hat ended up smaller.  It fits nice and snug and is good for windy or cold days.  

I did a different brim - basically a longer hat so that I can turn it up and my ears are covered by a double layer of crochet.  I did flip the right side/wrong side when I got to the brim so that when I flip it up it's all still 'right side showing'.  I love the repetitive look of crochet and wanted it all to match. 

I also did a better job of concealing the rows in the second hat - you can see the start/stop of the rows pretty glaringly in the purple hat but not so much in the pink one.  

I have a new silver/grey winter coat so these hats were made with one strand of silver yarn and one strand of colored yarn held together.  I have been wearing them both for over a month now and like them both!  I do enjoy the trial-and-error of learning to crochet.  Each of these hats only took a matter of days to complete so they were quick and fun and useful.