There was red, white, and blue in the acrylic yarn I was given, and I had the idea of making a Texas flag beanie with a blue top and the sides red and white. My beanie-to-beret mistake here was I used a crochet hook a size or two too big, and the white yarn was a smaller diameter than the red and blue. The crown spread out flat instead of making a gentle curve, so once again I changed the plan to make a beret. The white yarn was the softest, so I used that for the single crochet ribbed band. To finish it off, I embroidered a star outline with the white yarn.

To get the two halves of the hat different colors, I didn’t work in the round, and didn’t carry the yarn, but rather worked half the stitches in white, switched to red, joined the white at the other side, chained 2, turned the work, and did the red back to the white, picked up the white and stitched to the red. All stitches are double crochet (American notation).

Once again distracted, I decided to try a crochet puff stitch to add some texture to a hat. And again, my circle expanded flat instead of nice curve, so I finished it as a beret rather than a beanie.

A puff stitch uses techniques from both increase and decrease stitches. Essentially you increase six double crochets in one previous stitch and finish by decreasing them all together so the stitch count doesn’t change. The width of the row does, however, which is why my circle just kept expanding.

Next on the hat docket: stripes! But with a twist, or rather, a wave. I started the beanie with rows of double crochet in white yarn, then used a combination of single, half-double, double and treble crochet stitches.

Technical details:

In a magic circle 12 double crochets (dc)

Row 1: 2 dc in each stitch (24 stitches)

Row 2: 2 dc, 1 dc around (36 stitches)

Row 3: 2 dc, 1 dc, 1dc around (48 stitches)

Row 4: 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1dc around (48 stitches)

Row 5: 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1dc, 1 dc around (60 stitches)

Row 6: chain (ch) 1, *half double crochet (hdc) in next stitch, dc, treble crochet (tc), dc, hdc, sc. repeat from * around. Before completing last hdc, join in new color. Slip stitch to the beginning of the round. Don’t cut old color, don’t carry the old color around.

Row 7: ch 3 (counts as tc), make all stitches in the back loop: *dc, hdc, sc, hdc, dc, tc. Repeat from * around. On last stitch join in first color.

Row 8: ch 1, *hdc, dc, tc, dc, hdc, sc. Repeat from * around.

Repeat rows 7 and 8 until desired hat length is reached.

Tips: when lining up the rows, the tallest stitch pairs with the previous shortest, so the tc will always go in a sc, and vice versa. Putting the stitches in the back loop gives a nice line to the wave.

I’ve drifted off firmly into the realm of experimentation in this round of crocheted hats. Because I had red, green, and white in the stash of acrylic yarn, I wanted to experiment combining the colors with a spike stitch. A spike stitch drops one loop of yarn down a row, making a long V shaped yarn embellishment. I stuck with my standard double crochet hat pattern, making spike stitches every three double crochets and switching colors every row. I did not think that one loop of yarn would change the width of the row, but it did. Instead of getting a nicely rounded beanie, I had a flat circle. Hm.

Time to make it a beret instead. I switched to using just the white yarn with no spike stitches, and the fabric immediately made the turn without decreases. I didn’t have to make decreases until round three. Then I switched to a single crochet parallel rib for the last band. The ribbing is very stretchy and although it looks in the picture like a small opening, it expands to fit a head, and lays flat for storage (happy accident).