How do you crochet a hat...

...or beanie or whatever. I know, there are plenty of tutorials, patterns, etc. that you can find on the Internet. On my part, I am also sharing a few points with you. As you might have known by now, I am on a hat-crocheting spree and felt it is more appropriate to do this post right now before I get bored of hats.

Most of you would know how to crochet a basic beanie, but I am sure there are lots more who don't have an idea about it. Even if you know how to go about it, I bet there is one big question many of you will have, "how to determine the correct size?"

Now, I am not an expert in this area. I am fairly new to crocheting hats, but from what I have researched on the internet, there are a few things which might help you to crochet a hat of the desired size.

*Measure the size of the head.

Wrap a measuring tape around the head (forehead, back of head, above ears) to find out the circumference of the head.

You can click here to get a chart on head sizes for different age groups.

The beanie that I have shown here measure 12.5 inches in circumference. It will fit a newborn head.

Now you have measured the circumference of the head and you would want to make a hat of that circumference, but remember that the hat will stretch.  So make it an inch or two smaller. A hat that has been made using double crochet stitches will stretch more than one made using single crochet stitches.

You can either start from the bottom and move towards the top or start from the top and move towards the bottom, which is more common.

I will explain to you how to start from the top. First you have to make a flat circle which forms the top of the hat. You will be expanding the circle to reach the desired size. This is where most of you will have the question, "when to stop expanding.?" I found in the internet a formula for this.

Say for example, you want to crochet a hat of 12.5-inch circumference. You have to divide this measurement by 3.14 (value of pi)

So, 12.5/3.14 is approximately 3.98, which can be rounded off to 4.

You have to stop expanding when you have reached a diameter of 4 inches.

There is one more method. Place the circle on top of the head and check if the edges of the circle are in line with the ears. Ah, I made a small drawing to explain it :))) Hope you can get it. So now you can stop expanding and start working even.

Are you someone who don't know how to expand a circle? If you know how to make a magic circle, it is very helpful. Otherwise,

• Ch 3.
• 8 dc into the 2nd ch from hook. Join with slip stitch to beginning of round.
• 2 dc into each dc (16 st)
• Increase in every alternate stitch, i.e., 2 dc + 1 dc + 2 dc + 1 dc + ... (24 st)
• 2 dc + 1 dc + 1 dc + 2 dc + 1 dc + 1 dc + 2 dc ... (32 st)
• 2 dc + 1 dc + 1 dc + 1 dc + 2 dc + 1 dc + 1 dc + 1 dc + 2 dc ... (40 st)

You will keep increasing in this manner until you have reached the required size. As I mentioned earlier my hat measures 12.5 inches in circumference, so I stopped expanding when I reached 4 inches diameter. From the next step onwards you will start working even, i.e., 1 dc into each dc. Once you have stopped expanding and started working even, the edges of your circle will start to bend.

 You will continue working even until you have reached the desired length. That's it. You can use any stitch: sc, hdc or dc. When you use single crochet, the stiches are more compact and stretches little whereas a hat made using a double crochet will have more stretch.  I hope that helped.

You can visit my Etsy shop for crochet patterns.