The Story (and pattern) of a Crochet Ribbed Hat

This is the Stephen Hat, a crochet ribbed hat. I followed a fairly typical pattern and ran into some typical crochet problems along the way. What follows is the story of this hat and my own crochet journey in six parts. Scroll to part six for instructions on how to make the hat.

Crochet ribbed hat

Part I: Procrastination

A short while after we started dating, my now husband Stephen asked me if I would make him a hat. He had accompanied me on a trip to a thrift store for sweaters to unravel. He had also seen some evidence of a yarn stash and several crochet works in progress. One day, we were out in Seattle and stopped at a thrift store in Capitol Hill. He found a blue cashmere sweater and asked if I could make a hat from it…Five years later, I have finally finished the hat.

It’s not that I chose a complicated pattern or that Stephen has a building-sized head. I just didn’t get around to making it a priority until recently. He would ask about it every once in a while and I would unravel a little more of the sweater. Once it was unraveled I needed to choose a pattern, so I pinned crochet hats for months.

Part II: Turning over a new crochet leaf

Things would have gone on like that if not for my reflections during the last few days of 2016. I was ready to be done with that year and determined that 2017 would be different in many ways. One of those ways was making time to craft every single day and making sure I was at least doing at least a few stitches on a crochet project every day. I chose this ribbed hat as the first project for turning over a new crafting leaf.

Crocheting a Ribbed Hat: in progress

Part III: Crochet leads to crochet

Right after Christmas, I picked up the cashmere yarn, chose a pattern, messed around for a few minutes with different hooks and began to crochet the hat. I mentioned this hat in my works in progress (abandonment) post because for a while, progress was so slow and it kept falling to the bottom of my crochet bag. While working on it, I learned that crochet leads to more crochet. My guess is that when you’re working on a project, the inspiration and energy necessary for creative endeavors is high. You start feeling like “I can do this…so what else can I do?” You pin even more crochet patterns and project ideas. Maybe you pick up a skein of yarn and a hook and just play around with a stitch you wanted try. Before you know it, you’ve got a new project on your hands!

More progress on the crochet ribbed hat

I started many new projects after starting Stephen’s hat. But this was a good thing. Even though the new projects delayed and distracted me from finishing the hat sooner, it made it possible for me to craft every day. If I grew tired of doing tiny cashmere back loop single crochets over and over, I had a thread crochet bookmark to work on, or a baby hat to seam. This helped keep things fresh and helped keep me inspired. And eventually, I made enough back loop single crochet stitches and was ready to do the finishing touches.

Part IV: But sometimes you have a crochet fail

Uneven edges on crochet ribbed hat

Oh boy. I had noticed that the edges weren’t exactly even when I was about ¾ done with the crocheting, but I didn’t want to frog it, so I kept going. (I was already making such slow progress!) Turns out, counting stitches periodically is pretty important. So is having a consistent method for starting a row. Crocheting while watching TV or chatting during a car ride is a great way to maximize your crafting time. However, for straight edges and an effective result, you still have to pay attention to certain aspects of the process every once in a while.

Part V: Salvaging the fail

Stephen asked for a slouchy crochet ribbed hat, so I made the beginning chain about 12.5” long. As I was working it, it seemed like it might end up being excessively slouchy. That turned out to be a good thing, given the fail noted above. Folding up the bottom of the hat solved the look of the uneven bottom edge. Seaming the top of the hat was a bit messier than it should have been, but it still resulted in a hat.

Finished crochet ribbed hat

Part VI: Easy lessons, easy crochet ribbed hat

Lesson 1:

Crochet hubris is an embarrassing and easy way to mess up an otherwise simple project. I guess I really hadn’t paid attention to how I started rows of single crochet before this. While making this project, sometimes I skipped the first stich and sometimes I didn’t. OF COURSE this will result in an uneven fabric. I am amazed at my own arrogance and how I thought I didn’t need to count stitches.

Lesson 2:

There is an easy way to avoid this: crochet in the first single crochet every time you turn.

Lesson 3/Instructions for crocheting the fabric:

Back loop single crochet rows are an easy way to imitate a ribbed knit fabric. I looked at a bunch of different patterns for this type of hat and knew I wanted to do back loop single crochet. Most hats I saw used bulkier yarn than I did, so following the pattern exactly didn’t make sense. Lion Brand’s Adult’s Easy Crochet Hat was a good starting point for me, but I finished it slightly differently and my stitch counts were different.

Chain until it measures 12.5”

Row 1: SC in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across.

Row 2: ch 1, (Does not count as a stitch. Not in any of the rows.) sc in back loops only in each sc across.

Repeat row 2 until the fabric measures about 19” (or the measurement for the head of the person who will wear it).

Knot, but do not cut your yarn

Lesson 4/Instructions for turning your crocheting into a hat:

Turning a rectangle of crocheted or knit fabric into a hat is really easy. Once you have finished the crocheting, hold the first row and the last row together. (Hopefully they will line up.) At the end where you just finished, work the seam to create a tube out of the rectangle. Get a loop onto your hook by inserting into the edge of the fabric and pulling up a hoop. Work the seam stitches as follows: insert your hook into both loops of the sc and into the first row of sc, pull up a loop and pull through the loop on your hook (a slip stitch). Continue slip stitching until you finish the seam.  Finish off, but cut your yarn with about 18″ of a tail.

Flatten the tube and hold the top edges together. Weave the long tail of the yarn in and out of the edge of the fabric so that you are closing the tube at the top. Use a yarn needle if you need to. With my unraveled cashmere yarn, I decided to double the yarn first and then weave it. (Ok, full disclosure: I wove it and then when I pulled it, it broke, so I decided to double it to make it stronger.) After you finish weaving it across the top of the fabric, gently (!) pull the yarn tail so that the top of the tube gathers. It should start to look like a hat shape now. Secure your yarn with knots and perhaps some extra stitches along the top edge. Turn the hat right side out. You crocheted a hat!

Share your stories and lessons!

Have you overcome crochet procrastination? Do you have any projects that you consider to be crochet fails? What did you do to salvage the project, even if not 100% thrilled with the result? What lessons have you learned from your own crochet fails? Share your stories in the comments!

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