making crochet cool, one hat at a time. {free pattern}

i’ll make this easy for you. when i’m gone and dead, and you’re all gathered together trying to think of the absolute, 100%, unequivocal winner of the title of The Coolest Thing Shannon Ever Made to engrave in tribute on my headstone…this is it. winner winner chicken dinner.

let me be clear: i’m not overstating this. and once you’ve seen it you’re bound to agree. ready?

waaiiiittt

for

              it……..

 

SHUT. UP. is that a crochet baby hat that looks like a shtinkin’ WONDER WOMAN WIG????
why yes. yes it is.

ARE WE EXCITED ABOUT THIS???

and i’ve even created this mind blowing photo for your pinning pleasure. ready?

BOOM.

i just won 1,000,000 internetz.

okay here’s the breakdown:

+ this is super easy—like beginner crochet. it’s a basic crochet cap. the spiral “curls”, the “crown” and star are separate pieces,  sewn on to the cap.

+ i made this for a little baby. littler than elliot, and that’s why little ms. peyton here is my model. (the same baby who received the star wars quilt and onesie)

+ did i also make a pair of crochet GOLDEN BRACELETS with a red rattle/star on them? which i forgot to photograph? YUP.

+ i based the idea for this off this crochet princess hat, which is a free ravelry pattern. hmmm…what other wigs can we crochet???

+ the hat isn’t heavy—peyton had no problem keeping it on her head. and actually quite loved it. in fact, she was having so much fun wearing it most of my photos look like this….

+ i’m sharing this pattern with you for free. FREEEEEE??? yes, free, with these small caveats: please link back to me and my blog if you make/share/blog this. and if you want to sell thousands in Ye Olde Etsy Shoppe, go forth and prosper. but PLEASE LINK BACK TO ME AND GIVE ME CREDIT FOR THE PATTERN. (and if you wanna cut me a commission i wouldn’t hate that if ya know what i’m sayin’)mmmkaythanksiloveyou.

Wonder Woman Crochet Hat

There are 4 major components to this hat (hat, curls, crown, star), which are crocheted individually and then sewn together at the end. I knot everything because I wanted this hat to be durable and potentially washable. I’ve had too many things slip apart eventually and then I get HULK SMASH ALL THE THINGS ANGRY.

These instructions are based on a 3-6 month old sized hat, but it can be easily sized up by making your beanie portion larger and a few more curls.

HAT
YARN: Black sport or worsted weight.
HOOK: H
+ + + + + + +
CH 3
Slip stitch into 1st CH to join, CH 1 (making a loop, or you can also start with a magic circle if you know how)
Round 1: CH 1, 9 HDC in ring, join with SL ST (9)
2: CH 1, 2HDC in each HDC around, join with SL ST (18)
3: CH 1, HDC in next HDC, 2 HDC in remainder of HDC, join with SL ST (27)
4: CH 1, *HDC in next 2 HDC, 2 HDC in next HDC, repeat from * all the way around. join with SL ST (36)
5: CH 1, *HDC in next 3 HDC, 2 HDC in next HDC, repeat from * all the way around. join with sl st (45)
6: CH 1, *HDC in next 4 HDC, 2 HDC in next HDC, repeat from * all the way around. join with sl st (54)
7-18: CH 1, HDC in each HDC, join with SL ST (54)
Fasten off, weave in ends.

this will make a size 6-12 month hat. if you’d like to size up or down, here is a good free pattern showing various sizes, or if you’re on ravelry you can see a few HERE

CURLS
YARN: same as hat
HOOK: G
NOTE: the curls are all made the same basic way: a long chain, then 2 or 3 treble/triple crochets in each chain. each is tied to the hat with a small piece of black yarn in roughly the center of the curl. i varied the lengths of the curls by chaining a different amount at the start, and did a 2-2-3 combo of TC back across. there’s not really a reason, just that the more stitches you put in each chain stitch the tighter the curl becomes. i thought 2 was a little loose and 3 was a little tight, so i did a combo, but you can do whatever works for you. (this is straight up mindless crocheting, perfect for TV watching ;) 
note: if you’re making a larger size hat you’re probably going to need more curls to adequately cover the hat. just make a few extra.
+ + + + + + +
CH whatever length you need.
going back along the CH, do (2 TC, 2 TC, 3TC) repeat until you have 2 chains left
1 SC and a SL ST to finish off.
knot ends

repeat over and over until you have a sufficient amount of curls to cover the hat. some longer for the back (chain 45-55ish) and some shorter for the front (chain 25-30ish)

CROWN
YARN: Gold/yellow sport weight 
HOOK: F
+ + + + + + +
CH 8
ROW 1: SC in 2nd CH, SC, CH 2 (7)
ROWS 2-9: SC, CH 2 and turn (7)
ROW 2: SC across, ch 2 and turn (31)
ROW 3 + 4: repeat ROW 2 (31)
ROW 5: SC 7 times, ch 2 and turn
ROW 6-8: repeat ROW 5
ROW 9: 3 SC in last ST, ch 2 and turn
ROW 10: 9 SC, CH 2 and turn
ROW 11: 8 SC, 3 SC in last st, ch 2 and turn
ROW 12: 11 SC, ch 2 and turn
ROW 13: 10 SC, 3 SC in last st, CHAIN 3 and turn
ROW 14: 13 SC (extra chain at the tip), chain 2 and turn
ROW 15: 9 SC, SC2TG 2 times (single crochet 2 together)
ROW 16: 11 SC
ROW 17: 7 SC, SC2TG 2 times
ROW 18: 9 SC
ROW 19: 5 SC, SC2TG 2 times
ROW 20: 7 SC
ROW 21-28: repeat ROW 20
finish by slip stitching across top of crown

STAR
Yarn: small piece of red
Hook: F
+ + + + + + +
chain 3
slip st into 1st chain and chain 1 (making a loop, you can also start with a magic circle if you know how)
15 SC into center
slip st into 1st SC to join and CH 4
*SC into 2nd chain from Hook, HDC (half double crochet) into next CH st, TC (treble crochet) into next CH st and slip stitch in 3rd chain of your round to join.
Repeat from * four more times to make 5 points of your star, join and tie off at the end.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
sew the star to the center of the crown, then sew the crown to the front of the hat, lining up the straight edge of the crown with the straight edge of the hat.
holding your curls roughly in the center, tie them in various places around the hat with a small section of black yarn. it helps if you put the hat on something to see where the curls will naturally fall (a doll, a convenient child, your knee…). this will also give you a sense of how many curls you need and how long they should be. make sure and do one or two shorter ones in the front, and layer them down the back for that fluffy, just-fresh-from-the-superhero-salon look.

place on your favorite toddler/baby and enjoy.

a crochet guessing game

IF YOUR NAME IS KIM AND YOU’VE RECENTLY HAD A BABY…PROBABLY DON’T READ THIS. UNTIL YOU GET A PACKAGE FROM ME. THEN COME BACK AND READ. K? K. ;)

okay, now moving past that PSA…if your name isn’t kim/you haven’t had a baby in the last week or so, feel free to continue reading. 

so remember the little dress and hat set i crocheted for a friend here? when i made it kim emailed me and said “please please make that for me IF i have another baby and IF it’s a girl!” and of course i’m a wonderful person and i said yes. ok. truth is i love crocheting and i’ll take any excuse to make tiny baby things. ;)

guess what? she did have another baby! guess what else? it’s a boy! so, no little dress and hat. whomp whomp. but….shhhh. truth is i’m easily bored and i kinda hate making the same thing twice. so really, i’m kinda glad.

ooh! and guess a third thing. i’m a total procrastinator! so even though i finished the bulk of this quite a while ago and all it needed was buttons, i kept delaying…until this weekend when i hopped on instagram and there was bouncing baby boy making his debut. whoops. ::sheepish grin:: this also explains the stunningly terrible photography here. i wanted to get it shipped out ASAP, and the light was not in my favor. :(

so it was a race to sew on those eight buttons, trim the loose ends, and get this little package shipped off…

i mean, hello!? a tiny crocheted sweater that looks like a itty bitty double breasted peacoat?

peacoat pattern from HERE, yarn is bernat baby in a gray and white twist color.

a tiny hat with ears??? EARS!!??!?

hat pattern found HERE, same yarn as coat

a crocheted…uh. this?

so here’s guessing game #4: what is this? i decided to take the rest of the yarn and make what hopefully, hopefully will be a snuggly little cocoon for baby axel. i used a combination of the grey yarn that makes up the coat and hat and some plain white yarn. the entire thing is done with a double crochet, and it’s kind of shaped like a letter ‘T’.

i sewed four wooden buttons on one side…

so he can be wrapped in and buttoned up as snuggly—or loosely—as is comfy for him.

because it’s made with double crochet any opening can serve as the buttonhole, so it’s adjustable.

does that make sense? honestly in my head it 100% makes sense. but….i’m not sure how it will work, and (unfortunately) i happen to be fresh out of newborn babies to test it on. so i wrapped it up and mailed it off today, and hopefully the new little man and his momma will enjoy! congrats, kim!

open diamond cowl

the final scarf in my scarf-a-lot triumvirate is a pattern i wrote. like i mentioned yesterday, i pick the yarn based on the person i’m doing the project for. and this scarf was for my mom—a bulky weight mustard yellow is perfect.

the problem was i had no pattern in mind, and a frustrating and fruitless search of ravelry, plus five or six different patterns started and then frogged led me to start thinking this wasn’t going to work. i like the look of bulky yarn, but i didn’t want something overly bulky if that even makes any sense.

so i finally scrapped all the pattern hunting, thought about what I wanted this to look like, and began crocheting.

i’m pretty stoked by the result. (yeah, i said stoked. so what)

it’s crocheted lengthwise, done in all half-double crochet, with some skipped stitches forming a subtle open diamond pattern to give it some interest.

at the very end i had a smidgen of yarn left, and squeezed out the little button tab closure as an added element for one side.

now here’s where i would share the pattern i wrote, because i was smart and efficient and took notes while i crocheted.

HA!

okay, so here’s where i would share the pattern i wrote, because i took pictures and worked up a sample and wrote it down later.

DOUBLE HA HA!

yeah…i tried to do that, but i realized there was a big error in my pattern. which may explain why i kept wrestling with last rows trying to keep my diamond pattern lined up. i’m not giving up…i’d like to make myself one of these. and when i get the pattern nailed down i’ll be back to share. 

in the meantime, i feel so bad…

oh hey! bonus! it’s awkward me, modeling the cowl before handing it off to my momma…

the crocus scarf

see, i told you these were relevant to spring.

as i was reminded yesterday by a kind commenter, i live in one area of the world that is approaching springtime. but there are large swathes of land where scarf-wearing is still de rigueur—nay, even necessary. you know—like the entire southern hemisphere, for instance.

ugh. how #firstworldproblems of me. i didn’t get my scarf tutorials on my blog fast enough, and now the area I’M in it’s spring! oh noooos!!! i feel so….northeast US-centric.

:/

anyway, moving on…this is another scarf pattern crocheted up for my mother-in-law.

pattern found on ravelry HERE, direct from the knitting daily website HERE, done in my favorite wallet-friendly caron simply soft yarn.

as usual, i changed it a bit—doing three repeats of the pattern vs. two (how it’s written). i also eliminated the edging, and opted for a simple single crochet border squaring off the three edges and following the bumps of the top edge.

it’s another scarf i was in love with, threatening to keep it. threatening who i’m not sure. myself, maybe? but it’s funny…i choose the pattern and the yarn with the person in mind. the entire time i’m working on it i’m thinking about that person. by the time i’ve finished—no matter how much i love the item—in my head it’s theirs. it belongs to them. and so it was with this scarf. i love it—the pattern, the color…but i could no more keep it for myself than i could walk into my mother-in-law’s closet and claim one of her shirts as my own. (her son, on the other hand…him i took. and i’m not giving back. so i’m not entirely sure my analogy works on all levels.)

is this normal with you other sewers/knitters/crocheters/quilters? i’ve only recently become secure enough to start giving the things i’ve made as gifts…so i’m wondering if this is kind of how everyone feels when they make a specific project for a specific someone. like—i love it, but it’s not mine to keep. let’s talk.

drops design scarf

okay can we just set aside for the moment that it’s april? i mean, if the weather doesn’t follow the calendar, why should my project sharing?

let’s pretend for a moment that it’s still the winter, maybe late january, and you’re still interested in crochet projects. because i have three scarves to share with you this week. and even if your sewing thoughts have turned to spring dresses and short sets, maybe you can just bookmark this for next fall, when you’re ready to cuddle up with a skein and a cuppa. k? k.

first up: this peacock blue scarf, based on a drops design pattern.

this scarf was a gift, so i had guinevere model it for some shots before handing it off. what i didn’t realize when i took the shots was that the settings on my camera were wonky, and so a lot of the photos came out blurry. and now the scarf is gone…so you must see blurry pictures.

pattern found on my ravelry HERE, and direct from the website HERE
yarn: caron simply soft in color ‘peacock’

the original pattern calls for the flower/grape cluster things to run the entire length of one side of the scarf, making it more like a wrap or shawl in my opinion. so i did three repeats of the pattern then turned it sideways and worked the lattice design for about 34”. then i made a separate section of three repeats of the cluster design and attached it on the other end.

it’s not perfect, you can see the seam where i joined the two sections if you look. but i couldn’t figure out a way to do it continuously without overtaxing my limited brain power (and crocheting knowledge). and honestly when you’re wearing the scarf it’s not noticeable at all.

i liked the idea of the design hanging down on the front. it also makes the scarf a little more lightweight than your average crochet/knit scarf. maybe this is a spring project after all?

the last thing i did was block the edges of the scarf. the cluster design gets pretty clumped up as you work it, so i wet it and pinned it flat to my ironing board and let it dry for a day. the caron yarn is acrylic, so it doesn’t take long to dry.

my instagram photo of this step was much more dramatic:

my biggest victory in this scarf? this is what the pattern looks like:

that’s right—it’s an actual crochet PATTERN. and it turns out, they’re really not that hard to read. it was my first time using one like this and i was pretty proud of myself for figuring it out. #supercrocheter

the crochet monster

it’s happening, and i didn’t even see it coming.

i mean, my love of handmade items is obvious. and my burgeoning love of crochet has been developing steadily over the last year or so.

but i’m pretty sure there’s an unwritten rule saying the grandmom-types are supposed to be the ones bringing the knit blankets and quilts and crochet items to baby showers. not the 30-somethings. right? 

we’ll call it the passing of the torch—albeit maybe a bit early. because the thing is, i can’t seem to stop myself. not when there’s things like this to be made:

yes, i could have simply run to the store and gotten a gift card (which i actually did do, to give along with the dress & hat). and that probably would have been the wiser, more practical avenue, seeing as i do have some other responsibilities in my day-to-day life.

but…why? i mean, you’ve seen this, right?

it’s so tiny and so delicate. i should have put something in the photos to give you an idea of size. it’s definitely for a newborn, and only a newborn.

just one skein of caron simply soft in a muted mossy green color (lighter than what it looks in these photos) bought on a whim because it was on clearance at walmart for about $2.50 (and which i threw away the wrapper for and so NO you can’t have the actual color name). and even after doing the dress and hat i still have a significant amount of yarn left.

the dress has three little buttons in the back, and i think it would look adorable with a long sleeve onesie and tights underneath.

the dress pattern is the angel wings pinafore from bev’s country cottage.

i eliminated the last row of edging and did three buttons in the back. but it was quick and easy and—as we’ve already established-ridiculously adorable.

the hat is the shell stitch beanie from the dainty daisy. also a quick project, and the shell stitch is the same stitch used in the dress.

i was going to add a flower to the hat, but i’ve had this butterfly pinned forever and decided this was the perfect place for it.. butterfly pattern from marie’s making. all the patterns are free, and i found them on ravelry.

this was a quick series of events: the shower was planned within a week. i made the dress and hat up on saturday, the shower was sunday, and surprise! baby arrived monday. i have yet to meet her, but i know what she better be wearing when i do ;) you don’t want to make this monster angry.

start now, maybe you’ll be done by winter.

is it too soon to talk about crocheting?
the way i see it—school supplies are out, jeans and sweaters are appearing on shelves, and who cares if the actual temperature doesn’t agree with us i say cooler times are on the way! personally—i could not be happier. fall is my time of year. it’s crisp air and jeans and boots and sweaters and gloves and walking through apple festivals with hot cups of coffee. its no less sweaty, less annoying, less heat-induced-rage causing. fall is our anniversary, fall is our time of year.
so who’s with me? maybe if we all take up our crochet hooks and knitting needles en masse we can sway the rotation of the earth just a smidge—enough to bring on the cooler climes we so desire.
and how about a little something to really inspire you?
how about the chance to win three crochet patterns from the talented luz mendoza?
you know, a pattern for something like this:

or this:

or these:

or maybe a little something for you, like this:

right?!?!?! how can you say no to that!?!? (and side note—how pretty is she???) i couldn’t! ms. luz contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked if i would be willing to host a giveaway of some of her patterns, and as soon as i checked out her shops (HERE and HERE) i wrote back and said YEAH BABY! she designs the cutest hats for littles and biggers alike, and that scarf—to die for!
i picked the dinosaur and tail/scarf pattern to try, and my boy is 10 so i’m not sure who i’m making it for but how could i not make this???

i figure i can add a pink bow and make it a girl dino. gigi can definitely pull that off.

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

want the chance to win some patterns for yourself?
THE DETAILS + one entry per person

+ luz asks that you please “like” her page on facebook. if you don’t facebook (like me!) please visit one of her shops and browse through all her awesome patterns!
luz has a shop on craftsy and also sells on amazon

+ leave a comment letting me know if you liked her facebook page or visited her shop, and put your email address if i won’t know it

+ contest open until 8/30/2012, at which time a winner will be chosen via random.org and emailed. the winner has 48 hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen! (don’t make me do that—it feels really mean)
that’s it! get commenting!