Fiber Monday 216: Quick Hat

So, guess who's back to helping me out after taking a brief hiatus?

Dedbert!!!
Looking quite... menacing, to be honest...

Today, I had no idea what to make, so I found a random hat pattern on Ravelry (via Cascade Yarns, to give proper credit) and decided to make it using a skein of blue wool yarn I had left over! It also gave me a chance to use one of the pretty new hooks I got!

My pretty 3.75mm hook, and my locally-sourced bluejay-colored wool yarn.
I got the yarn free as a gift, guys.
Never, ever turn down free yarn.

Normally, I'd just do the magic ring setup, but the pattern called for ch-6, sl st into first ch
so that's what I did.
Imagine.
Me following directions...

Now I see why they ask for the chain-circle, rather than a magic circle.
It would be a pain in the badonk to get 15 double-crochet stitches (dc) into a magic ring and not have them instantly cup.
Cupping would be bad this early in the process. You'd wind up with a pointy hat.
This is not supposed to be a pointy hat.

Increasing dc is much more dramatic than increasing sc (single crochet).
Dc increase here is 2dc in each dc of the previous row.

Second increase (dc, 2dc around)

3rd Increase

4th increase brought me to 75 dc

Our 5th & final increase brought us to 90 dc around!

It looks messy for now, but the dc 5, skip 2, (dc, ch 5, dc), skip 2 pattern is pretty fun!
Good thing I like it...

A closeup on the details!

The next row is dc 5, ch 2, sc in 3rd ch of ch-5, ch 2 around.
The hat is beginning to take shape!

Another closeup

Here's where things got really fun.
It's the same basic pattern as before, but we've moved it over a bit.
Basically, I'm dc-ing where there's spaces or sc, but I'm making those dramatic v-shapes on the runs of 5 dc.

Closeup!

And here's the next row finished.
It's another ch2, sc, ch2 kind of row!

Deets

Then you repeat those four rounds!

Closeup that makes it look like midnight in my room.
It's actually quite bright, but my camera got blasted by both my desk lamp & my laptop, which freaked it out.
It's kinda dramatic, right?

And here we have the hat with its first round of edging!
The edging here is just a straight half-double crochet stitch around.
You should end up with 90 hdc.
Don't forget to hdc twice in each chain space on either side of the sc, and don't forget to hdc in the sc, either!

It's done! Well, except for weaving in the end, there. I did that using one of my new(ish) yarn needles!
That bend is so, so useful for getting into the weird stitching bits so I can hide those tails!

If you were wondering what I used, here you go!
I don't really think this is DK, guys. It's very, very thin.
That made it perfect for a lightweight springtime hat!
The color is more like the background on the lighthouse picture than the kinda navy blue the pictures give it.
And yeah, the wool's a little scratchy, but that's just how wild wool is!
This skein would've been $12 if I'd bought it on my own. It's worth every penny.

Alright! What did you guys think of this week's little experiment? I don't have very much of that yarn left, either, so I'll have to think of something to do with it!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC