I had some extra yarn left over from crocheting my flower necklace, so thought I would crochet my daughter, Anneliese, a cute hat. At first I thought it would be suitable for the winter, but now that it’s ready, I see that it’s a light hat, suitable for a crisp day outside, because it’s better than no hat, but isn’t good for the dead of winter. Either way, I think it came out nicely, and wanted to share with you how I did it.

It was very quick and easy to make, and cost me less than 2 dollars- this used up nearly one ball of cotton yarn . Yea, I probably could find a hat at a thrift store for cheaper than this, but this was made with love, and suits my taste better than something that wasn’t made by me.

So, how do you do it? (My attempt at writing a crochet pattern will be in italics.)

Well, first you make 4 chain stitches, then a slip stitch to make a loop.
Ch 4, sl st
Then you make 8 double crochets into the hole.
8 dc in hole
Then just crochet into the first double crochet. You can make a slip stitch and chain two to make a new row before this, but I didn’t bother; I just made mine in a spiral. Make 2 double crochets in every double crochet from the previous row. Making two double crochets into a single stitch is called increasing.
2 dc in every stitch
Once you get to the next row, make 2 double crochets in one stitch, 2 double crochets into the next, and 1 double crochet into the next. Then repeat until the row is over.
2 dc in stitch x2, 1 dc in stitch x1. For entire  row.
Next row, make one double crochet into each stitch, but every third stitch add an extra double crochet into that stitch.
1 dc in stitch x2, 2 dc in stitch x1.
For every row after that, you want to be increasing less and less frequently. The more times you increase in a row, the flatter it will be- if you don’t increase enough, it’ll start curling in. Since you want your hat to be big enough to fit on your kid’s head, but round enough so that it’ll actually be rounded like a hat, its finding the perfect balance between rounded and flattened… Experiment with the amount of increases. If it seems like it’s getting to be too flat, decrease the frequency of your increasing. If its curling in too much, then increase some more.
Keep on increasing gradually until the hat looks wide enough to fit on your kid’s head. Stop increasing, and just make more and more rows without increasing, until the hat is long enough to fit over your kid’s head, with the edges folded up, and still sit nicely on your kid’s head.
This hat was 20 rows.

If you did a spiral like I did, after you finish your rows, do a single crochet into the next stitch, then a slip stitch into the next stitch, and then finish it off.

Fold up the bottom, so that it looks good. I folded mine up about 4 rows.

Position your flower to test out where it should go.

If you have a bead, test out where it should go. I used a pearl type bead from a broken dollar store necklace.

Using yarn a yarn needle or crochet hook, and the same color yarn as the flower, sew the flower onto the hat, sewing through both layers of the hat, so the fold is sewn into place.
Then sew on the bead.

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