I've been keeping my fingers busy and using up left over yarns to make hats and mittens in the last weeks. I use a basic pattern for the hat that I improvised from other hats I've made in the past. Since I am not making for anyone in particular, it doesn't matter what size it ends up being. That means I don't have to check gauge all the time. I hate checking gauge! :-) What a godsend!
Here's what I've made up lately.
You can see that one of my hats ended up being a beret. That was an oops! I increased way too much for the yarn and hook size. It would have fit Big Foot so I improvised and it turned out great!
Anyway, here is my pattern:
Use a hook that works with your yarn weight.
- Chain 3 and join
- sc 8 in the ring & mark the beginning of the nxt round
- 2 sc in ea st to the end of the round
- 1sc, inc 1 by doing 2 sc repeat all around
- 2sc, inc 1, repeat all around
- 3sc, inc 1, repeat all around
- continue working in the round increasing sc sts between increases by one for each round until you have 7sc between increases for Small, 8 sc between increases for Med and 9 for large. Keep in mind that the yarn size and hook size will affect the size of your finished piece. I have made some that will fit dread heads really well :-)
Ok so once you have decided how many increase rows you want the rest of the hat is done in sc in every st. In the first row of no increases, I work the back loop only but you don't have to. Continue to sc until the hat is the depth you want. I go at least 6". Keep in mind that the edge will roll up a bit after you tie off so you lose some of the depth. Adjust your final depth accordingly.
You can see that I also use up ends by making stripes along the way but anything goes!
The mitten pattern I use is a basic easy crochet pattern that you can find
here.
