This week's random pattern find is this beautiful hat you see right above these very words. It's so beautiful! The delicate shell stitch really adds some nice texture to the hat! I came upon this pattern when a friend tried to make it as a chemo cap for her mother and was struggling to figure it out. It kept rippling up on her. We thought it might have been because she was using cotton so I worked the pattern up using Sugar N Cream cotton.
I didn't get the rippling problem but did have some sizing problems that are my fault. To compensate for the lack of stretch in cotton I went up on hook size to an H hook. Then I followed the toddler instructions thinking that it would come out perfect for my 3 year old.
It didn't. It came out perfect for me. This is a GREAT example of why gauge is important.
I didn't really make any changes to this pattern. I didn't do the tie around it or the fish because I think the shell stitch is shown off more without those but if you do add them, it is equally as cute! It's all a matter of different tastes (and since I dn't fish... or wear hats... I ended it before those steps LOL).
I did make some changes on the brim. When I make a sun hat, I start the increases right where I left off. So on the toddler size the last increase is 7 and then 2 dc in one st so I went right on up to dc in next 8 and then 2 dc in next st and then so on and so forth. You can do it either way as the designer's way obviously worked as well. :p
Crocheting is all about being artistic and adding your own touch to your projects and I just can't help but do that :p
So yeah, check your counts. If you use cotton DEFINITELY check your gauge. With my tension, a G hook (Probably the 4.5 which is actually a 7 hook) would have worked well.
