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.

So doilies are round and flat, and berets start out round and flat, so if I find a pretty doily pattern that might work for a beret, right? Um, depends. I found a pattern with a flower center that was quite attractive as a doily. When translated to larger yarn, I had the necessary width before the center flower was done, resulting in a beret with symmetrical holes, rather than a lovely lace.

Back to the drawing board. I’m starting to see the end of the bag of gifted acrylic yarn though!

I’ve made a star topped beanie that I’m pleased with. The star has some aesthetically pleasing sparks, and it definitely reads as a star.

• American notation
• Row 1: 10 double crochet (dc) in a magic circle, slip stitch (sl st) to first dc (count is important for these rounds)
• Row 2: Chainless Double Crochet Start (CDCS, Moogly has the tutorial where I learned this stitch) Increase (inc: two dc) in each previous dc. 20 stitches.
• Row 3: CDCS in white, inc in next sc, 1 dc add in blue on last move of the dc, *inc in blue add in white on last move of dc, 1 dc, inc, 1 dc add blue, * repeat from *, inc in blue, join to CDCS with blue. Carry off color around by stitching in.

• Row 4: CDCS in blue add white, *dc in white, dc in white add blue, dc in blue, inc in blue, inc in blue, dc in blue add white* repeat from * sl st in CDCS in white
• Row 5: CDCS in white add blue, *dc, inc, 3 dc, inc, dc add white, dc in white add blue*, repeat from * dc, inc, 3 dc, inc, dc, sl st in CDCS in blue.
• Row 6: CDCS in blue, dc around, don’t carry the white, but don’t cut it. The diameter of the circle will be the size of the hat, add rows of blue, increasing as necessary.
• Sides: no increase stitches, work half the stitches in white, switch to red, join the white at the other side, chain 2, turn the work, and do the red back to the white, pick up the white and stitch to the red.