I’m not a fan of color pooling, which is when a variegated yarn lines up as you knit or crochet and you get patches of color. Random, strangely shaped patches. I was in the craft store with my youngest doing a store walk to get some exercise and fill time, and a skein of brightly colored yarn called my name. (Walking a craft store makes for an expensive trip, just for future information.) I started making a beanie and then the colors pooled. Yuck. This is probably one of the worst examples of color pooling. I didn’t realize that they put the cool shades and warm shades together and I ended up with garish almost paisleys rather than a blended rainbow.

Something this bold and in your face needs to be a beret rather than a beanie, so I kept going with the diameter. I made a stretchy band with ribbed single crochet, and there finally achieved a more pleasant to my eye color shift.

I didn’t rip out the work, because everyone is different and there might be someone attracted to the fire and ice flames of the hat, and have the personality to pull off the bold beret. Or at least keep their head warm.

I washed a load of crocheted hats with fabric softener and then dried them with a dryer sheet to get the inexpensive acrylic to soften up some. The technique works and the hats just need some labels and they’ll be ready for the chorus craft sale.

Current hat count: 35. I’m almost through all the acrylic yarn.

So I wrote up a pattern for my lace beret, and even tested the pattern with a second beret.

Materials: worsted weight yarn, size I hook, yarn needle

Terms:

ch – chain

sl st – slip stitch

sc – single crochet

scbl – single crochet in the back loop

sc2tog – sc two stitches together

dc – double crochet

CDCS – Chainless Double Crochet Start (I like Moogly’s method)

• Row 1: ch 2, 20 dc in magic circle, sl st to first DC
• Row 2: CDCS, dc, ch 2, *dc, dc, ch 2* repeat ** 9 more times, sl st to start (10 ch 2 spaces)
• Row 3: Sl st to ch2 space, CDCS, dc, ch 2, 2 dc, *in next space 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc* repeat ** 9 more times, sl st to start
• Row 4: CDCS, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), skip 2 dc, dc in next dc* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
• Row 5: CDCS, dc in same st, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), skip 2 dc, 2 dc in next dc* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
• Row 6: CDCS, ch 1, dc in next st, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), skip 2 dc, dc in next dc, ch 1, dc in next dc* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
• Row 7: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, ch 1, dc in same space, *in next space (3dc, ch 2, 3dc), in next ch 1 space, (dc, ch 1, dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (3dc, ch 2, 3dc), sl st to start
• Row 8: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, dc, ch 1, 2dc in same space, *in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), in next ch 1 space, (2dc, ch 1, 2dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), sl st to start
• Row 9: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, dc, ch 1, 2 dc in same space, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), in next ch 1 space, (2dc, ch 1, 2dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
• Row 10: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, ch 1, dc in same space, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), in next ch 1 space, (dc, ch 1, dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
• Row 11: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, ch 1, dc in same space, *in next space (dc, ch 2, dc), in next ch 1 space, (dc, ch 1, dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (dc, ch 2, dc), sl st to start
• Band: ch 8, turn. 7 sc, sc2tog, turn. *7 scbl, ch 1, turn. 7 scbl, sc2tog, turn.* repeat ** until beginning is reached. Stitch sides of band together, weave in ends.

I can spiral two and three colors, how about four? Well, this might take some development. The angles of the spiral arms change even more than in the three spiral version, and I quickly slid into beret territory, but then didn’t make the increases evenly somehow and ended up a little wonky.

Making the beret band was a fun experiment. I tapered the final stitches on the last round and the single crochet ribbed band went on nicely.

I don’t think I’ve talked about the subtle difference between beanies and berets. After a beanie’s circle is made the sides are straight with no increases or decreases, the circle should be the circumference of the head size to get a nice fitting beanie. A beret circle goes far beyond the head circumference, then the sides use decrease rows to come back to the right circle size before adding on a band.

There are several ways to crochet a striped hat, but my favorite is with spirals. Can I spiral three colors together? Yes!

To start the spiral, each color has a single crochet, half double crochet, and two double crochets into a magic circle. This gives a slight taper to the start of each color. The increases for the crown are worked in each color and there are no ends to the rows, the stitches are worked continuously around in double crochet alternating colors. To end, I reversed the taper with a half double crochet, single crochet, then a slip stitch before weaving in the ends.