Hook and Needles: Knitting and Crochet Blog (cool stuff, techniques, and things I find)

Every year I knit at least a couple of hats for my husband, this year I decided to crochet him a beanie (which ended up being more like toque). I find crocheting faster, and he likes the hats to be thick. The following is my recipe for beanies. It’s not exactly a pattern, because you can adjust it to fit your head size, and yarn weight.

Crochet hat with brim

That is me modeling the hat

Before you start, measure the intended head. You want to determine the rim’s width, so place your tape measure around the head where the rim of the hat would be (probably going from above the eyebrows to the nape of the head). Write the number down.

This hat is done in double crochets, each row starts with a chain of 2 (or 3 if you prefer), and ends with a slip stitch to join the last double crochet with the top of the chain you started with.

You’ll make the beanie in the following steps:

1. In a magic ring, or in the first chain of a chain of 2, single crochet 10 stitches.
2. Crochet 2 double crochets in each single crochet on the first row (20 stitches).
3. Continue increasing 10 double crochets in each round until you reach the rim width you calculated at the beginning.
4. Double crochet all around (no more increases) until desired length.

If you are not sure how to increase 10 double crochets in each round, here’s an example of how to increase all the way to 90 stitches (that’s how big my hubby’s head is),:

• [dc 1, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (30 stitches)
• [dc 2, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (40 stitches)
• [dc 3, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (50 stitches)
• [dc 4, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (60 stitches)
• [dc 5, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (70 stitches)
• [dc 6, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (80 stitches)
• [dc 7, dc 2 in 1] 10 times (90 stitches)

You may need more, or less, depending on the head circumference, and yarn weight.

If you find that you are at the point where the hat it too narrow, but adding another increase row will make it too big, then increase only 5 stitches, instead of 10 on the last row increase. And if you have to choose between the beanie being a little tight, versus a little loose, choose a little tight, the beanie will likely stretch over time a bit.

If you want to add stripes, just make sure the slip stitch at the end of a row is made with the colour of the next row.

For my husband’s I made it longer to add a brim (he likes being able to unfold the sides of the brim to cover his ears), and to make it even warmer, I lined it with polar fleece (if you are going to line your beanie, make it a tad larger.) If you want to learn how to do this, check out Techknitting’s articles about it (How to line a hat, headband style, with Polar fleece, and Fully lining hats with polar fleece).

If you prefer doing the hat in single crochets, you can, just do your increases by 6, instead of 10. It will take longer, but the fabric will be tighter.

I hope this helps!

That's me modeling the hat (it's to big for me!)