Freestyle Beanie

Hi, everybody. Welcome to our live crochet event. I'm Brenda KB Anderson and I'm very excited today to show you guys how to make my version of a beanie, which I'm calling the freestyle beanie because uh today is gonna be unlike most of the other lives that I do in which we don't actually have a real pattern that we're working from. OK. So there is a pattern download.

Um But really, it's not a pattern, it's more like an explanation of the process um with some photos in there to help you guide you guys along. And then also at the end, there's kind of like a little gallery of uh some photos of the hats that I made. All the different kind of styles I made and explaining like what yarn I used and a little bit about the details of them. So that's what's in the download. So you can go ahead and download that, that's free um freestyle and uh we'll get started.

So in case you are like brand new to crochet, this is the project for you. This is a very straightforward approachable. It's just an awesome project for a total beginner because first of all, you don't need to learn how to read a pattern yet. You can just dive right in. Second of all, you don't have to worry too much about getting the perfect gauge.

You just gonna make it up as you go and if that just scares you a little bit, don't worry, it's gonna be fine. Um And really, and the third, you just can kind of make it your own and it's a really good experience. It's like the perfect amount of crochet space uh to, to kind of like learn what you're doing by the end, but also not get bored of what you're doing. Um So it's, yeah, it's a great first time project. But, you know, if you've been crocheting for a long time, there's also gonna be some little tidbits in here for you also.

Um at the end when I talk about how I personalized my hats, uh I'm just gonna get you guys thinking about how to kind of make this your own some different ideas on how to kind of personalize them because I, when I was pulling this together, I was thinking that um I was imagining, you know, like, hey, it's October, it's gonna be mid October. This is gonna be like prime time for people to be making holiday gifts. And I wanted to give you guys like, basically a path, something that you can reach for. Um when you're just kind of stuck and you don't really know what to make someone because people love beanies and there's so much room for personalization and we're gonna talk all about that later. Um, but it's just, it's a really great, uh, basically a great trick to have up your sleeve to know how to make one of these beanies without using a pattern.

You can use any yarn you want. Um, it's gonna be fun. Ok. So, uh this of course is live event. Hello?

If you wanna say hi to me, then just drop that in the chat box. I'd love to see you guys in there. And um if you have questions about what I'm working on, uh you know, definitely put the questions in there and I will answer them during this live event. Um If you have any suggestions or also if you have ideas about how you would like to personalize a hat. I am all ears.

I love it when you guys participate and you know, you just, you add so much to these live events. That's why I love doing them because all the people watching have a lot of knowledge I'll put together and we can all learn so much from each other. So please um put any ideas you have in the chat box. So um without further ado, let's talk about this hat. So a special note to you guys who are brand new.

Um Normally when you're making a project, a lot of times you will be following somebody's pattern and they have like the specific yarn listed in there and a specific hook that they used in order to get a gauge. A gauge just means like you make a little tiny sample of the fabric with the hook and the yarn suggested. And then you see if your sample is the same size as the person who made the pattern because if it's not what that means is your hat is not gonna be the same size as the person who wrote the patterns hat. So you have to kind of um you have to switch up your hook size or change your yarn thickness or, you know, there's some different things that you can do, but eventually you have to be able to get the same gauge as the person who wrote the pattern. Um or you have to kind of rewrite the pattern to make it all work out just to make sure that you get something that fits.

And in this version of a beanie that is just kind of out the window. So, um if you've never shopped for yarn before and you are just like, I don't know what to get, I'm gonna give you some suggestions and I'm gonna kind of show you the difference that the yarn weight can make. So yarn weight, it actually means like how thick your yarn is. So when you're working it up with your crochet hook, you'll get bigger stitches with a thicker yarn, smaller stitches with the thinner yarn. So let me just show you three of the examples that I used um in this, in my project so far.

This is a number six. This is, it's called the number six. It's a super bulky yarn. This is called a number five. This is a chunky yarn or sometimes called a bulky yarn.

And this is the number four, this is a worsted weight yarn or medium weight yarn. So you can see there's a difference here. This is thicker, a little bit thinner, even a little bit more thin. And what I'm talking about when I'm, when I'm saying those numbers, what I'm actually talking about is there's like a standard that usually is on the the yarn labels. Now, if you take a look at this yarn label, there's this cute little adorable little skein of yarn with a number in the middle right there.

This one says a four, medium. So this one came from this yarn actually this gray yarn here and it's telling you kind of the the general thickness of the yarn. Ok. So a four is what is a very versatile yarn. People use this all the time for Afghans hats, mittens, all kinds of, you know, sweaters, all kinds of stuff.

Um And the bigger the number. So this was a four, this was a five and this was a six. But the bigger the number, the thicker, the yarn So, and usually what that means is you're going to be going up a hook size as well or more than a hook size, you're gonna be changing your hook size. So, if you're thinking, ah, I don't know, how do I know what kind of hook to get when I'm at the store? I'm gonna give you some ideas.

So, if you're brand, brand new, I would suggest you stick with a number four or number five just to do your very first project. Um If you're, if you're not new to this, then you just go read your yarn stash and uh come right back. So number four, number five and hooks that would go along with that for number four, usually I use like uh a four millimeter hook or a five millimeter hook, a G or an H for this thickness of yarn. And you can see the thickness of the yarn is similar to the chef of the crochet hook that um that for me anyway, but everybody crochets differently. So you may find as you're working this up that you do not like the fabric it's making.

Maybe there's a lot of holes between your stitches and you're like, that's gonna be a cold hat and it doesn't want to spring back into shape. Then you need to go down a hook size or two until you get a fabric that you like if you're working it up and it's like really hard to get your, your hook into the stitches and it's just super tight and you feel like it's not gonna have a nice shape on your head. It's just gonna, it's making a fabric that's really, um, really sturdy, but it's not very, very flexible. Then you can go up a hook size or two, to just kind of adjust for that. Um That's how we change our gauge, that's what that's called.

So like how many stitches per inch or how many stitches per four inches? Um ok. So if uh or if you're gonna start with a chunky weight yarn or a bulky weight, this is the number five. I would recommend maybe trying out a six millimeter hook or a 6.5 millimeter hook like AJ or a K. Um First to see how that goes, but you know, depending on what yarn you use, there is a, there is a lot of difference actually in the thickness of yarns, even if it is all say you have like three kinds of yarn, they're all able to number five, they, there can still be a quite a big variety of sizes within that number five.

So just know that you have to be willing to change up your hook size to get the fabric that you want. OK. But these are pretty good, you know, general beginning ideas of working with these sizes of hooks. OK. But you can choose whatever yarn you want.

Um whatever hook size gets you a fabric that you like. All right. So I am using in this, in this project or in this collection here. I use uh 100% worsted weight wool. I used 100% acrylic and I think this might be an acrylic alpaca blend.

I'm not really sure but a blend of yarn um, here and they have kind of a, they all have different textures and feels to them. So that will also kind of change how your beanie wears and how it feels. If you have a looser spun yarn, something that's fluffy and lofty, it's probably gonna have more drape to it when you crochet it up. This is what I made in that yarn. It's very poofy and drap.

If you choose a yarn, that's a little more solid, it's gonna have, um, you know, a, a more solid texture to it. So, you know, that, that also affects your project. But if you're beginning and, and you're feeling like, ah, I'm overwhelmed already just back up a little bit. It's ok. Just choose some yarn and make a beanie and then you will learn as you go, you know, the more beanies you make, the more you're gonna learn about the how the properties of the yarn kind of translate into the finished properties of the beanie.

Alrighty. So, oh, we've got lots of hellos, Melissa saying hello from Manchester, Kentucky. Julie saying hi from Alabama and Linda. From Kokomo hats for families. Yes, you can make, I'm, I, I'm guessing you're asking if you can make um a bunch of different sizes and you can make any size, any size you want.

And I'm gonna be showing you how to do that. I think that's what you're asking. Um And Shatika is saying, hey, happy crocheting y'all. Happy crocheting. Thanks for popping in.

Joan is saying hello from Connecticut. Babu says love the sweater you're wearing. Would thank you. Uh Would love to make the hat. Is it a is it also crochet or knit?

It is crochet. This is a crochet project. Um And Melissa says, I love having lots of options for quick and easy hats. Either my family misplaces one or I donate one to a homeless shelter. Yes, that me too.

Me too. I have lots of hats. And um that is one of my, I, that is just one of my go to projects. I love making them. I love gifting them.

I love donating them because they're easy. And you can, especially this version of the hat. You can make these while you're watching TV. It's just super simple. All right.

So let me get started on actually making this hat. Um I am gonna be using this yarn here. This is a chunky weight. A number five and I am using a K hook which is a 6.5 millimeter hook. And so when you start on your hat you can think about, you know, first you wanna think about after you've gotten your materials first, you wanna think about, uh, what size you want to make your hat.

So if you already have a hat that you wanna make it about the same size, then you can grab that hat. If you do not have a hat, then you can use a tape measure. Um, and, and just kind of guess. So here is a, let's say, if I wanted to make a hat that was this size, I would sometimes it's hard to just measure straight up here, especially if you have the kind of hat that just this one's been kind of sitting flat in a pile for a while. So it's very flattened, but sometimes your hat's really bubbly and it's kind of hard to know like, how do you measure that?

Usually, what I do is I fold it so that it's kind of in, in half like this. And then it makes a, a better point at the top and then I just measure from the top, from the center top to the bottom. So this was eight inches. And then if you want to add anything on here, you know, for the fold over part, which I do recommend. Um, and I'll tell you why in just a minute, then you're gonna add that on there as well.

So we'll say like if we were taking eight inches and then we would add three inches onto that. Um, so that would be 11 inches. So we would want to make our foundation foundation chain 11 inches. Um, to start with the reason that I'm saying, I recommend adding this. Of course, you, you know, you can decide if you want this or not, but if you're like brand new, I would, and you're kind of like on the fence about whether you want this fold up part.

I would recommend putting this on there because, um, not only is it gonna keep your ears warmer, but also because that way when you're working your piece, we're gonna be working up and down the length of the hat. If it isn't exactly perfectly the perfect height when you try it on later, then you can fold it up a little more if you just make it to the height that you want it to be. And let's just say it's just like half inch or three quarters of an inch too long or something. And it just kind of bothers you, then you can't really fold that amount up, you know, but if you already have a fold up section, you could certainly fold it up just a little bit more just to make it to the perfect height. So that's why I really like making them with, with this extra fold up area.

I mean, besides that, I live in a very cold place and I really like having that extra double layer warmth there. Plus it's cute. And then as we'll talk about later, um, it's, it just makes decorating them a little bit easier too. Or adding a little bit of personality to your hat's a little bit easier too if you add that. All right.

So if we wanted to make our hat 11 inches tall, let's see. We would just go ahead and make a foundation chain and I'll show you how to do that in case you are brand new. So we're gonna take our strand of yarn and we're gonna draw a little loop like this. Then we're gonna take this loop and we're gonna flip it over onto the strand of yarn that is connected to the ball. OK?

So we're just gonna take it, flip it over onto that strand and then we're gonna place our hook underneath that middle strand like this and then I'm gonna place my finger right where all these um yarns kind of cross around each other to just kind of hold that. I put my thumb there too and I'm just gonna tighten that up. So this is a very long and kind of sloppy um loop. We want to tighten that up. So we just pull on the, the strand that's connected to the ball until it's close to the our hook.

OK? It should be able to slide easily. You should be able to hold it down here and slide it back and forth. Um But it shouldn't be like falling off your hook. Ok.

So that's kind of how, how I usually like to start then to make a chain, we're just gonna wrap our yarn around the back and over the top of our hook and then we're gonna pull it through this chain and you watch what happens. Now, this is one of those things where you can absolutely do it your own way. And a lot of you watching this are like, yes, I've made the, I've made the foundation shade before. Ok? Um, but for those of you who might be absolutely brand new, it really helps to watch someone do this.

And when I'm, when you're watching me, you can see that I'm gonna be moving my hand back and forth to make that, that chain because it's hard. Like when you're holding it here, you can't just pull it through. So you, when you make that chain, you're gonna wrap it around, then I'm going to use these fingers to pinch that loop and I'm going to grab it with the, the hook. I'm pulling on my hook just a little to make this loop a little longer. And then I'm gonna turn the nose of my hook downward to pull it through that chain.

OK? And I twisted it back up so wrap it around, watch these fingers here, grab it onto that and pulling through. Now, everybody has a different way to do this. This is not the only way there's a million different ways to do this. You can do it however feels comfortable, but you have to just, you know, be making those chains getting that, getting those loops to go through.

Um, these are just tips that I have for, you know, trying to figure out how to kind of hold things when you're, when you're just brand new and you can see I can hold, now hold the yarn and the strand in my left hand and just do a little yarn over pulling with my right hand for a few stitches and then it starts to get unwieldy when it's too far away and I gotta grab again. All right. So we're just gonna chain and if you're brand new to crocheting, you may find that these chains get really tight. If on your next row, it's really hard to work into those. Make sure you go up a hook size just for this part.

This is called the foundation chain. All right. So we're just chaining along until we're to the right height of our hat. Um Oh, let me back up for a second because we've got lots more. Hellos.

Hellos, Cindy from Central Pennsylvania. And uh let's see. And Eleanor says, hello, Chico says hi from Chicago bookkeeper. Hi from Canada Paula from Texas. Hello, everybody.

I'm Fiona from Scotland. Hi. I went to Scotland once and it was amazing. Ok. So, um, let me back up for a second because I was gonna say I was gonna explain the whole tape measure thing when I told you, you could just measure your invisible hat if you don't have a hat that you like the shape of um or the height of or how it fits you.

Um Then you can go ahead and take a measurement off your head. So this is gonna be a little bit awkward because I meant to bring a head form so I could show you on that, but I'm just gonna use my head. So you're just gonna find the point on which like you could find the front where you're gonna wear your hat. Say I wanted my hat to be here and I'm just kind of imagining, you know, when you wear a hat, usually the very center top of the hat kind of comes a little bit more to the back. Um So you just have to kind of imagine where that's gonna go and you just have kind of measure the air, like, say I wanted to wear a hat and I wanted my beanie to stick up off my head just a little bit.

Then I would take a look at that and be like, OK, that's 8.5 inches and then I would use that plus whatever however many inches I want for this fold over brim. OK. So that's a place to start as well. Just measuring the air on your head or if you're making these for someone else, um, you can ask for a measurement, you know, you can ask them to measure their head from like their eyebrow to the back of their neck and then you can take the halfway point between that and know that that is gonna be a hat that's close to their head. And then if you want a little extra height, you can add some inches onto that because if you tell someone, OK, measure here and go up in the air, they might be like what?

Unless you show them this video which you could do have them take the measurement that way. Ok. So let's see. Oh Mary says hi Brenda here from Maryland. My first time actually live also having trouble with hat size.

Hope to get some tips. Ok? Well, this hat should fit you because we're going to be um, well, that's what we're gonna be talking about today. We're gonna make sure that the hat fits and it's really, really easy. This is a good trick to make your hat sideways.

Ok. So let's see. We're at almost 11. I'm gonna chain one more on for 11 and then because we all crochet a little bit differently and on the next pass, when we work into these stitches, sometimes that tightens your chain up and shortens it a little. I add just a few stitches on to that so that it measures about an inch longer we'll just say a little bit more when in doubt, just add a few extra.

Um because when we work across this, we, we wanna make sure that we don't run out that we don't work all the way across and then it's too short because that would be a bummer and then we have to pull that out and do it again, which I mean, is good practice, but that's annoying. So let's not do that. All right. So now we are gonna start working in the half, double crochet, stitch pattern. So if you take, take a look at your chain, there's a whole bunch of vs all stacked up like this kind of facing this way if you roll that over.

So the vs are on the table, you'll see all these little horizontal dashes on the back of your chain. OK? This is called the back of your chain. Also, sometimes people call it the bottom, back, bump, bottom bump. There's a bunch of different names for it.

OK? So we are gonna skip the first one, which is right here by my thumb and then we're gonna work underneath the next one. So in order to make a half, double crochet, we're gonna yarn over just like we did when we were chaining and then we are going to, and you can see I'm gonna hold this with my finger, then we're going to insert our hook from front to back underneath that horizontal bump and then we're gonna yarn over again. So our, our yarn is always coming across our hook like this and then we're gonna pull through and then we're gonna yarn over and then we're gonna pull through all three stitches like that. Ok.

So that is called a half, double crochet. We're gonna keep doing that. So we're gonna yarn over and then we're gonna insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through three. And especially if you're newer with crochet, but even if you're not, it's a good practice to just mark your very first stitch of your row so that you don't get confused later and add an extra stitch or miss this stitch because that's what makes our rows uneven or one of the things that could make, make our rows uneven. All right.

So now we are going to continue working half, double crochet all the way across our chain just like that. OK. So yarn over, insert yarn over, pull up, yarn over, pull through three. This is one of what I think of as the four basic stitches in crochet. I mean, there's like a gazillion stitches in crochet and there's, you know, even more stitch patterns that come out of combinations of those stitches, but usually people learn the single crochet stitch first.

Um But this is just got one extra little yarn over and it's easy enough for someone to do that little yarn over before they insert their hook and yarn over and pull through their three. So this is a, this is a good one to start with and I feel like half double crochet it for some reason, it helps people keep um their stitches from getting as tight as single crochet, stitches. So I if people can handle that little beginning yarn over which most people can, I like to recommend that people start with half double crochet because it just seems like it's a little bit less likely to get too tight. I think it's because of the extra yarn over that. That is one of the problems when you're, when you're working.

When you're just beginning to crochet as you're usually for most people, your tension gets really tight and then it gets hard for you to insert your hook. So if you're finding yourself, really having to push like you're doing this and trying to get it through that little little loop right there, then just, I know it seems like you're undoing and you're going back in time, but that's OK. Just undo your yarn by pulling on it, find a larger hook and do your chain and then switch back to this hook for doing this first pass at it. That's one of those things that you know, the more you do it, the more you're gonna be able to control that tension and things will get much easier for you. You get the muscle memory and then you'll be able to zoom across.

All right, we are getting pretty close to the end. So I am gonna go ahead and measure my piece and we'll see, we'll see what, what happened here. Ok. So there's 11 right there. So I'm gonna add just one more stitch and that should be what I wanted it to be.

Ok? So you're an over insert, you're an over, pull up the loop, you're an over pull through three and now you might be thinking, what the heck am I gonna have this ugly thing hanging off of my hat. What we didn't plan for that, but we can undo this really easily. So this, this is one of those things where, you know, if you ever have to make a super long to begin something you could do a foundation chain. But if you're not into that or you don't know how to do that and you want to do a regular chain like this and you're like, oh, did I get enough stitches in there?

I'm not sure you can just add some more and then undo them later. Ok. If you've never done this before, it's kind of a little aha moment. So you just can, you just kind of loosen that little knot and then you can pull this out. You're just basically un crocheting your work.

Ok? You just wanna make sure you don't pull on anything too tight. Um, before you realize, I mean, unless you know that you're undoing, you know that the strand you're, you're pulling on is going to undo your work because you could accidentally nod it too much. So, just pull on it a little and make sure that, you know which strand it is, that's, um, that's pulling out. All right there.

We are at the very end. So we've undone our stitches and now it looks great. Ok, so now we're gonna do the next row. So we are going to chain two. And if you're, if you've been crocheting for a while and you already have, if, if you usually just chain one for your next row, you can go ahead and do that.

Um A lot of times people recommend you chain two. I used to only chain one because I felt like chaining two made my um initial like the edge of my crochet work a little bit kind of wobbly. It wasn't very neat and tidy. So I switched to just chaining one, but then I went back to chaining two and chaining two very tightly because I feel like it, it looks even better for me the way that I crochet. So I'm gonna chain two.

So I'm gonna just yarn over and pull through, yarn over and pull through and in this, the, that I do this, I, I wanna say pattern, but it's not really a pattern. But in the way that I do this, I never count that as a stitch we never work into that. We just use this as a little ladder to get up high enough so that we can work the next row. So after we change two, we're gonna turn our work like we're just turning a page in a book like that. And now we are going to work across our stitches that we just made.

So normally when we crochet, we crochet under two loops. So we would make a half, double crochet like this underneath two loops right there. But in this pattern, we're gonna be working in a ribbed stitch, which is a half, double crochet through the back loop only, which means we're only going through this back loop. See how there's a V here just placing your hook underneath that back loop. So these two chains, like I said before, we're never gonna work into those.

So we're skipping those two chains. We're gonna yarn over, insert through that back loop, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through all three loops. OK? And then we can go ahead and mark that because that was our first stitch. And now we're going to continue working those half double crochets all the way across.

So you're an over, insert through the back loop, you're an over, pull up the loop, you're an over, pull through three, you're an over insert inert through the back loop. You're an over, pull up loop. You aren't over, pull through three. OK. So we're just gonna continue working those half, double crochets all the way across.

You can see that leaving that front loop open is creating this little ridge here and then your eye is kind of drawn to this little V shape, which is kind of nice little detail. Yeah. Um Hello to Kelly who has joined us and also Wanda Jones from North Carolina. Um It's her first time here. Welcome.

I'm so glad you guys are here. All right. So I'm just working half, double crochets through that back loop all the way across to the end. And we will end with our very last stitch which is has a stitch marker in it. So at this point after you do your first um row across, when you're doing your second row, you also wanna check and see how I, if that is um changing the length of your hat.

So this is something that can definitely happen, especially if you're newer to crocheting. And as you start to stitch, you start getting more relaxed or you start to get, start getting more used to where you to put your hook or you're holding something differently. Um All these things, those can change how many stitches per inch you end up with. So that's gonna change the height of your hat. So you just wanna kind of check in after the, you know, each of the first, maybe 23 rows and measure and just see if you're still on track.

And so this is another reason, it's nice to add that fold up brim because if you have that then you can fold it up a little more or a little less if it changes, um, height a little bit. So that way you don't have to worry. So we're still at 11 for me. But, you know, for some people this might get tighter, probably for a lot of people it's gonna get looser. So it's gonna start to bend like that.

So you're gonna wanna trust the more recent rows, the very beginning actually, um the very beginning row is going to, you know, that's gonna be more affected by like making that initial chain and working into that chain. It, it can just be a little bit of a bit of a problem. All right. So, um after you get that second row and then you can just keep on doing the same exact thing, you're gonna chain to one and two, turn your work and then you're gonna work into those back bumps, making the same stitches, half, double crochets all the way across, back and forth and back and forth until you make a big rectangle. So at this point, I want to tell you this is a little bit of extra credit.

So this is something if you're not as new to crocheting and you wanna learn another stitch, if you make your first row across in single crochet, that is gonna make, when we sew this beanie together later, we're gonna be doing one seam when we sew the beanie together, it's going to make this seem a lot less noticeable and I'll show you why when we get there, but I'm gonna back this up and I'm gonna show you how to begin by working single crochet across the very first row in case you're brand new and you've ne never made a single crochet. Um Then we're gonna do that right now. Uh You, you really can do it either way. I had been making beanies for years with half, double crochet and then just half, double crochet through the back loop over and over and over. Um And then only recently did I discover that I really like substituting that vet just the first row with a single crochet row.

So to do single crochet again, we're gonna skip that first dash and we're gonna work into the second one, insert your hook yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through two. So this is very similar to that half, double crochet except we don't have that initial yarn over. OK. So we're going to insert our hook yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two, insert, you aren't over, pull up a loop, you aren't over, pull through two. OK.

So you would just make the entire first uh the entire first row with single crochet instead of the half double crochet. And the reason that this tends to hide your seam a little bit better is because you have this initial foundation chain, that thickness plus the thickness of that very first row. We really want that to look like the height of a half, double crochet row. So half, double crochets, you know, are a little tiny bit taller than a single crochet. So that's why I have kind of modified my method here recently, um, in the last couple of months to doing a single crochet across that foundation chain because later on when you see us doing our little seam, you'll see it'll blend in a little bit better.

All right. So let me just check in with my questions here. Ok. See wolf pack is saying, yes, mind blown. Never thought of this.

And it's, I wonder, um, Cindy, I'm wondering what, what you exactly you were talking about just making the hat sideways or was it the single crochet thing? Not sure when your question came through. Um Oh my goodness. I never knew I could undo. Oh, I bet you're talking about undoing the chain stitch because that the next comment was undoing the chain stitch.

Yes. That was like a little aha moment for me. I have been crocheting freaky years before I even realized you could just undo that. I don't know why. I don't know why, you know more people don't talk about that because it's so much better to just add those extra chains in there and then just undo them later.

It's kind of funny. Um And Cathy is saying she loves how I explain the process. Awesome. Yeah, I wanted this to be very approachable for everybody, um especially those newer crocheters, but I know that some of you who have been crocheting for a long time and hopefully you'll be finding some little tidbits in here too. Ok.

So I've worked that single crochet all the way across. And at this point, it's gonna be the same as what I showed you before where we chain two to turn, we're gonna turn our work like turning a page in a book and then we're gonna work half, double crochets through that back loop. OK? So we yarn over, skip those two turning chains, insert our hook under the back loop. You're an over, pull up loop, you're an over pull through three and then continue, you're an over, insert into that back loop.

You're an over, pull up a loop, you're an over, pull through three. OK? So we would just continue working those half, double crochets through that back loop all the way across. And now, um we're either way you start out if you start out with the single crochet on that first row or a half, double crochet on that first row just to keep things simple, either way it's fine. Um And then after that, you are gonna always be working into that back loop.

So every time you turn your work, you're gonna work into the back loop. So, let me get to the end here and then I'll show you what that looks like when we turn and work the other way. Oh, and Amy is also chiming in about undoing the crochet chain. Yeah. I, it's kind of funny like it's just one of those things I've been doing that for a while ever since I had my aha moment.

But I kind of forget that, you know, not everybody knows about that and I should be sharing more tips like that, that I just do automatically without thinking. OK. So here we are at the end of our row, working our very last half, double crochet and then we would chain two and I like to chain those kind of tightly to keep my edge nice and even turn my work and then again, work into that back loop. So every time you're working into the back loop, it is what I mean is you're working through the back loop as you are facing it. So this was the front loop before when we worked across, but now that's the back loop.

So we're always going to be working through that loop that's further away from us when we're working on this um in this kind of style here. OK. So we're just working underneath that back loop, making those half double crochet stitches all the way across. All right. So we will just work back and forth making a big rectangle.

Let me show you what it looks like. So this one, I think I started this one out as a hat for me. This is actually a kid size hat. So this is gonna look a little bit wider. I think it's probably taller than 11 inches.

So don't be alarmed, but it's the same process. Um, and I, I just wanted to show you this is about the right size for me and the way that, you know, if it's the right size is two things you can do, first thing you can do is you can measure the circumference of your head and then subtract about two or three inches. So if you're using, um, you know, just depending on how tightly you want your hat to fit or how much stretch your fabric has. See, it has quite a bit of stretch. Um, but if you're using a yarn that, that, um, doesn't want to stretch as much, then you're gonna wanna maybe only subtract about two inches.

If you're using a very springy yarn, probably three would be better three inches from your head measurement. But having said that this is like, you know, a, a larger child to a larger adult size, subtract about that much. If you're making a little kid's beanie or a, or a baby's beanie, then maybe only subtract somewhere between two inches or 11 inch. Really? I mean, and they're gonna, their, their little heads are gonna grow and they're gonna fill up that hat anyway.

So, if you don't subtract that much and it's a little bit loose to begin with, it'll fit in like a month anyway. Right. Um, so that's just something to keep in mind. So, anywhere really between one inch for a baby or two inches for a, a child or an adult. Um, but I would err on the side of two inches for a baby and three inches for a child or adult.

So that's how, that's how much it should be smaller than your circumference than your head circumference. So if you measure around your head circumference where you're wearing your hat, um, and then subtract three inches from that or two inches from that, then you should be good the other way. This and this is much more foolproof. If you have, if, if you are making it for yourself or for someone, you have access to their head, then, uh, you would just crochet back and forth and back and forth until you've worked an even number of rows. So either way you have to work an even number of rows and I'll go a little bit more into that in, in just a second and then you can just pin your hat together or you can even slip, stitch it together if you're more seasoned crochet or you could probably do that even quicker than pinning it to make that tube.

And then you're gonna try that on. So that way you can feel what it feels like. You can fold up the brim, feel what that feels like. And then, you know that, you know, if that's the right, that's the right circumference for you. That's the beauty of making the hat in this way is that the hat is gonna wrap around your head like this.

We are going to be cinching the top of the hat together and then of course, folding up the brim, that's what it does. Um But the, the, that's why I love making hats sideways, first of all, because the ribbing looks so nice this way and it's nice and stretchy in that direction. But also because you just keep going until it's the right size. You, you, that's, and then you, and then if you worked too many rows, you can just remove two rows or if it's a little bit tight, then you can add two rows. Ok.

So let's go back to the how to know if it's an even number thing, um an even number of rows. So when you first start out, this is my beginning tail down here on this corner. So this is one row, this is the second row, third row, fourth row. So every time you get into like a little valley here, that is two rows. So here's one and 23 and 45 and six.

So you can count up by two, as you can say, 2468, 10, 12, 14, 16. No. Um, and then know how many rows you have, whether it's odd or even. Um, and that is, it's actually kind of a nice thing to do is to count that up. And then you can jot that down if you wanna make another hat.

That's, that's exactly the same size. You basically designed your own hat and you have your own hat pattern to follow for next time if you use the same kind of yarn and same hook. But the other thing you can do to know if this is an even or odd number of rows is your beginning, yarn tail will be here on this corner and then diagonally across your ending, yarn tail should be over here if you've worked an even number of rows. So if you don't feel like counting it, you're like, uh this is not the only yarn that I have, that's, you know, that I'm gonna be using up. I'm not gonna be, I don't need to write this down.

I don't need to care. Then you can just make sure your hook is ending at this opposite corner. It has to be diagonally across from where your beginning yarn tail is. OK. And so I wanted to show you for, especially for you newer crochets.

What happens when you use up your ball of yarn and you have to start another ball of yarn because that could happen to you. Uh, these hats, you might be able to get a hat out of a larger skein. But you also, you know, if you're using a smaller skein of yarn or maybe you're using scraps or something like that, um, or a chunkier yarn, you might have to add a second skein to your work. And if you've never done that before, it can just be like, oh my gosh, what do, how do I even start with that? So I wanna show you how to do it.

Let's just say we're, we were running out of yarn right here and we need to join some yarn. So all you need to do is before you completely run out of yarn, you can make your last stitch. So we'll just yarn over, insert and then there's lots of different ways to do this. But the way that I would recommend doing it is when you're gonna do that last yarn over and pull through, you just lay two strand, you lay the old strand on there and then you lay the new one on there too. So here's the beginning tail of my new strand of yarn.

It's just laying across my hook and then we're just gonna yarn over and pull through. Oops, hang on, let me back up. OK. So yarn over insert, then we're gonna yarn over with both of them together and then we're gonna pull up that loop with two together, then we can go ahead and drop all the old stuff and only just yarn over with the new and now you can, you don't have to do it. This way.

If you're like Brenda, I've changed yarn lots of times and I don't really feel like doing it that way. You just do it the way that you normally do. Um, this way works great when you're doing a half, double crochet because it, it tends to, you know, having those two together when you yarn over anchors the yarn just enough that it's not gonna go anywhere. Um As you're making that, as you're finishing up that last stitch. OK.

So I am gonna go ahead and finish working across and I will show you how to weave in ends and then I will, um, just because I need to weave in these two ends and get them out of the way and then I will do the next step. All right. Here we are at the very end. Now, we're gonna weave in these yarn tails so you just can thread it on to your needle. And I would do one at a time and you're just trying to slide it into those working loops or into those loops that you just made.

And it's great if you split through your yarn, um instead of trying to be really careful and go inside of all your loops and not break through the yarn. It's great if you can actually snag right through some of those, um, strands because that's gonna add a little bit more. Um, it's gonna add a little bit more like friction to it. So it's not gonna come undone. So I like to go back and forth a couple of directions before, uh, before I cut my yarn because that just really helps it not pull out later just like that, ok?

And you can just cut it off and it's good to know like what side is the right side and what side is the wrong side. So right now, this is actually the wrong side of my work. If you weave it in carefully enough, then it probably doesn't matter. But it's best practice to weave in your yarn tails on the wrong side of your work just in case it shows just a little bit. Alrighty, gonna cut that one, ok.

So now for the next step, we are gonna be working single crochet two together. This is a decrease stitch all the way across the top of our hat. So this is gonna be the top edge here and we are gonna start by just pulling up a loop in that very first ridge. So this is what I'm telling you in the sort of instructions or the recipe. This is a ridge of vs, this is a ridge of vs, this is a ridge of vs.

You guys see that this is, there's a picture of this in the download just so that, you know, in case you forget. But I place my hook right in the top of that V because it make, it looks like it makes a continuation of that when I make my stitch. So I'm gonna put my hook in the top of that in that very first V along the top edge. I'm gonna yarn over, pull up a loop. Then I'm going to go over to the next ridge, which is right here and I'm going to insert my hook there yarn over, pull up a loop and try to keep these loops tight as tight.

You know, you still want to be able to work through them but try to keep them fairly tight and then you're gonna yarn over and then you're gonna pull through all three loops. OK? And we're gonna continue to do that across the top of our hat. So, you know, this is a long stretch. So you don't want to just allow this loop to be really long here.

You want to bring this right up next to your work and keep it tight. So we're going to grab a loop there from that V and we're going to grab a loop from this fee kind of bringing them nice and close yarn over and pull through three. Now we move to the next one. Insert urine over, pull up the loop, insert urine over, pull up the loop, make sure everything's nice and tight and pull through three. So, what we're doing is we're basically just gathering the top of our hat here.

This, it makes the next step much easier when you sew up the top of the hat because you're not really, actually even sewing it secretly. All right. And then here we are, we're just, we're only working into those little columns. Ok. We're only working into those columns of, vs, just pulling up a loop, pulling up a loop, making a yarn over and pulling through all three, pulling up a loop and, and we don't have a loop here because this is our single crochet.

But we're just gonna pull up a loop. I mean, we don't have those little VS, but we're just gonna pull up a loop at the edge of that stitch there where that ridge is. And you may find that you have one extra loop. That's fine. You can just do a regular single crochet right into the top of that loop.

It just depends on how many rows you end up doing. Ok. So this is really bringing this in here. I'm gonna warm up my iron a little bit. So that, that's ready for me when we're ready for it.

Oops, looks like I snagged my yarn. I'll do that last stitch over again. So, pull up a loop here, pull up a loop here yarn over and pull through all of those OK. So now we are going to just cut our yarn. So we're gonna give ourselves a little bit of extra yarn because we're gonna be sort of pulling together the top of the hat and we're gonna be stitching down the side of the hat as well.

All right, I just cutting that off and then I'm just gonna yarn over and pull through and this is the right side of our piece because we ended on a right side. So we're just gonna bring that around like that. So this is kind of forming our tube here and then I'm gonna thread a needle with that extra long yarn tail. Let's see. Tara's asking if you wanted to change colors to have stripes.

When would you change the yarn the first stitch of a new row? Um Yes, I would start it on. Actually, if you wanna do stripes, what I would do is I would change yarn up at the top of your hat. So that would be after working rows one and two, then you'd switch because that way it'll be up at the top and where you change and then that edge is not gonna show you want this edge to be as nice as possible because you're just gonna fold it up. Um And you're gonna see that edge.

So I would change after like every other row starting after row two. So you'd change at the very end of row two. When you're doing your turning chain for the next row and then change again at the end after working row four, when you're doing your turning chain for the following row, that's how, that's how I would do it. OK. So we are going to just put our needle through each of these stitches at the very top.

So I'm starting. So this is where the yarn tail ended and I'm gonna start right here and then I'm just putting it through the front loop of each of those last few stitches that we worked. You could also do it under both loops if you feel like that's more secure for the type of yarn that you're using. Um But for me, this is gonna work just fine. I have a very sturdy acrylic yarn here.

So I don't, I'm not worried about it breaking and we're just going through that very front loop on all, all the way around. We've made it all the way around and now we are going to just pull on that until that circle disappears. Ok. So we've cinched it all in. So this sort of takes the place.

I've seen some other hat patterns where you just make the rectangle and then you have to just weave your um needle through and pull on that. But it's kind of hard to do that because you have so much thickness of the top of your hat to cinch in. So that's why I like to do that extra little row across the top and crochet where I'm kind of gathering things in. So that way you have a little bit less to run your needle through, um, when you're pulling it all together. So I'm just placing, I'm just putting my needle through that, those same loops.

I'm going around in the circle a second time just to make sure that's very sturdy. You don't have to, if you have a sturdy yarn, I probably didn't need to for this particular yarn, but I think it's just kind of good practice to be extra careful there. Ok. So now I'm back where I started and this is where our steam is. So we're just gonna butt these two edges together and there is the same amount of stitches on this side as there are on this side.

So you don't even have to pin it and we are gonna be working through. Let's see. I think it's the be I'm gonna have to double check my notes here because um I can't remember if I can't remember if I go under both loops. I think it's under one loop because I changed this recently. I realized.

Ok. Oh OK. So I'm gonna go underneath both loops. Whoops. Well, let, let's see.

Just the top loop of Elara worked, but under both loops of the foundation edge. OK. So I'm going under this is in your little cheat sheet here. See, I even needed that I've only done it a few ways. With this C method, you can, you can go underneath both loops of both sides and just do a whip stitch and keep it very simple.

But I found that it looked, it blended in just a little bit if I went underneath, just the top loop of that last draw that we worked, which is here sitting here on top and then underneath both loops, the v of that fo that very foundation chain. OK. And we're just gonna do a whip stitch. So top loop, both loops, top loop, both loops. We're just doing this whip stitch all the way down the sea in her hat.

Top loop, both oops and so doing it, seeing it this way helps to create that little ridge that's happening. You can see that ridge and that helps it blend in with the rest of our ridges and our ribbing top loop and both loops, top loop, both loops, top loop, both loops. All right, we are about halfway there. So the next thing I wanna show you and I'll try and talk a little ahead. So we don't run out of time.

Oh It looks like I think that for some projects you'd want to start a new color by making the new yarn become the last loop of the last stitch of the old color such as if you wanted to change at the bottom edge. OK. So yeah, what Lily is saying? So a lot of times in patterns they will have you do your last yarn over of the last ditch of the old color. So when you're working your last row of the old color, you do your very last yarn over to pull through with the new color.

So that is the standard way to change color for the next row. That's the way most people do it, the way I like to do it is I finish that stitch. Then I yarn over with the new color. Then I pull on the old color to make the loop just disappear. The last old color loop, it snugs it up.

And for me that, that, that is actually the way that I prefer to change color because it looks very tidy there. But um Lily is right. Most people change on the very last yarn over of the last ditch of the old color. Hope that was not confusing. All right.

Yeah. Now this going through the, just the top loop of the one row or the one edge and under both loops will help not only when we're looking at it from this side, but also when we fold that brim up, it'll help make it look a little bit more even. So when I get to be pretty close to the edge, I like to count up my stitches. So I've got 12345671234567. Ok.

It should be the same amount of stitches, which it is. But if it wasn't, it is ok to go through one of the stitches twice. So, like if there were more stitches here and less stitches here, you could go through one of the stitches down here twice. But going through each of these only once and that will even it out. And I always check for something like that when I'm pretty close to the end, like about where I was a second ago.

Um Because that way when you fix it up there, it's not going to show. But if you try to fix it along the edge or close to the edge, you're probably gonna get a weird little bump there. All righty. Here's our very last stitch. OK?

And then we would weave in our ends just like we did before. And then I like to um go ahead and block my hat because it will give it a lot more drape, especially if you made it in an acrylic uh fabric because we, I like to crochet these up at a fairly dense gauge because I don't want um I don't want the wind coming through. So because I'm using an acrylic, I like to use an iron and steam block my finished hat because that the heat shaping that is happening right now. Basically, I'm heating up all those fibers and helping them to relax in that shape. Um It's going to, it's just gonna make it, I have a lot more drape and it's just gonna look a little better.

So I would definitely recommend this. Don't skip this step, especially if you crochet something out of acrylic and you're feeling like it's just, I don't know, like a little too, um, stiff then. Definitely go ahead and steam it. And so you can see I'm not actually touching, not actually touching my hat. I'm just hovering above.

If you used a wool yarn, then you would go ahead and saturate the whole piece and, um, you know, squeeze, you would just let it soak for maybe an, an hour or two until it's completely saturated and then you would squeeze it all out as much as you can, using your hands. Don't wring it or twist it or anything like that. And then just kind of arrange to have it dry on a towel or another method that I really like. This is what I normally do when I block a wool hat. Um, is after I get most of the water squeezed out and I kinda use a towel to kind of squish it out.

Then I will blow up a balloon and s and celebrate. Just kidding. I blow up a balloon and I put it in the top of a mug, a sturdy mug and, but I wanna blow my balloon up to the size of a very, very small head, like much smaller than the head that's gonna be wearing the hat because you don't, you don't wanna stretch out your, you don't wanna stretch out your hat. Um, and then you can just kind of place your hat over the balloon that's sitting in the mug and that makes the top of your hat nice and smooth. Um, if I am steam blocking, I will use, I have a pressing ham, um, that I will kind of put inside of the top of my hat and then I can steam block the top of it.

I don't actually have that here. So I'm just gonna show you how you can just kind of make a little, I don't know, it looks like a little mushroom cap actually, but I just kind of giving it a little extra steam on the top to help those um relax just a little bit. And then sometimes that cause you know, if you steam it a little too much like that, then you can cause some kind of wrinklies in your hat and then you gotta kind of steam it flat again. So it might be best to do that first. But I usually like to just kind of steam the whole thing, steam the top and then I kind of go over it again.

All right. So you can see it's got a lot more drape than it did before. It was much stiffer before and this is what it's gonna look like. Um And I could probably work on steaming that just a little bit more to make the top a little bit. Um, it's just a little bit bumpy here.

But anyway, I want to make sure that I have time enough to show you some of my ideas for personalizing the hat. So, uh, this hat, I was thinking about sewing a patch on. So this is, um, just an idea. I have a bunch of these patches from traveling and I thought that it would make a really cool hat just to kind of whip stitch it around there with some sewing thread. Um, but this is one of those things.

Like, if, you know, if, if you're gifting this to somebody, you could look for some patches, Etsy has amazing patches. You know, if you're looking for some weird specific thing, like maybe a movie they like, um, that's really obscure or something like that. You can find all kinds of cool things on Etsy. You can get a special little patch, you know, it doesn't cost a whole bunch of money and then you add it to your homemade beanie and it really makes a very thoughtful useful gift. You know, it isn't, it isn't just something like it's actually useful and they're gonna get some wear out of it.

You know, if you just give them the patch, then they'll have to figure out what to do with it. So it's great if you get it and sew it to a hat for them. Um, another thing that I wanted to talk about was lining your hat. So if you make your hat out of something that's itchy, um, or if you make your hat out of something that doesn't have a lot of bounce back, like you can stretch it out and it just sort of gets bigger and bigger. Then you might wanna think about lining your hat.

Um, I normally for these hats, well, the simplest way to line these hats is only just to line the very bottom. That's the area that's touching you and it's covering your ears. That's the most important, um, area. Anyway, so if you wanna go ahead and line, just that section, it's really, really, really easy to do. So I just want to show you that real quick.

Um I'm not gonna actually line the whole thing, but I'll kind of talk you through the steps in case this is something you're interested in doing for your hat. Um You would, let's see if this was the hat that I was gonna line, I would unfold it. So it's, it's normal width here and then just make myself a little paper pattern. So draw with a pencil on this side and on this side and then where wherever I fold the, the top of it up, it's best if you can have it. And right around that point, if you put it up here and you're s hand stitching it to the inside you might see a little shadow of where you've attached it.

So it's really great if you have it and wherever the top of your little fold up brim is. So if this was the bottom of your hat, when it's folded, this was about the thickness of your, your brim. So you would cut out this rectangle and then you can either cut out a second rectangle and paper and tape them together and cut your, your um lining out all together or you can place your fabric on the fold, meaning you just fold your fabric along this edge and then you can cut that out because basically you want, what you want is two pieces that are joined together here or really one continuous long piece that's twice as white as this. And then, um before you cut that out though, you should think about whether you want to. Um, and let's see, in this hat, I rolled the edge of the fabric underneath and did a little tiny whip stitch, which I thought looked nice.

But I, I use this very thin kind of velvety. It's almost like a stretch velvet, but it's, it's like in between a stretch velvet and fleece, which is awesome for lining hats. I highly recommend that um, it was just in the fleece section at my Joanne's it, but it has like spandex in it. So it really bounces back. You can see it's very stretchy.

This is much more stretchy than most of the other fleeces that Joanne's has, uh, look for this because this is so soft and it is so stretchy and it really helps your hat keep its shape once it's stitched in there. Plus you don't want to add a whole bunch of bulk into your hat. You know, you don't want it to be really thick right there. It is nice for the warmth, but it kind of starts to look a little too thick when you've got the brim and then you've got the lining and everything all in one spot. Um So if you find a thinner fleece like this, you can actually roll over the edge and whip stitch that in, you can do that on both sides.

Let me just show you. So this edge was rolled under and I did a little tiny whip stitch along the edge and one along that edge too, just barely underneath. So you, you can't see it when this is folded. It's maybe like a quarter of an inch up inside the hat. Um But before I did that, actually, before I whip stitch the edges in, I stitched it into a tube.

Where is that? Seam? Here it is. And I just did the sea by hand because I wanted to just make sure that the whole thing could be done by hand because I know there will be people watching this who don't have a sewing machine. So I just did a little tiny stitch with the right sides together here, I'll show you my piece like if I was making, I cut this out so I could make this, make it for this hat later.

Um But I would put my right sides together and then just do a little running stitch across there with maybe a quarter of an inch seam allowance. So I find if you cut it out to the width of what you're drawing um the edges of your hat and then you do that seam allowance, which makes it a little smaller that it'll fit into your hat pretty well. So once you stitch it into a tube though, place it inside your hat and then check the fit. You can always make that seam, you know, a little bit tighter. If you feel like it's um kind of if you're getting a lot of ripples or it's making your hat wanna stretch out in order for this to fit, then, you know, you can definitely make it a little bit smaller before you commit to stitching the two edges in.

So I just wanted to show you that that's a very easy way to do it. Um Oh, and let me pull this back in here. Let's see. Oh Julie is saying, when measuring the circumference, where do you lay the measuring tape on your head? I just place it where the bottom of my hat would be.

So most people measure the circumference right around their hat and it's level like this, but I like to put it around where my hat is actually going to be going around my head. So, you know, I, I usually I wear my hat kind of tilted backwards so that my hat comes all the way down to the back of my neck and then the front of my hat is up here. So I just imagine where the edge of my hat is gonna be. And that's where I measure my circumference and then I subtract three inches and that seems to work great for me. So, um ok, so another thing I wanted to show you about uh show you our other easy ways to personalize your projects.

So this one, I put a giant pom pom on because I thought that would be super cute. And then I cut out a little piece of a metallic faux leather. I poked some holes in with a sharp um needle first and then I just used yarn to whip stitch around through the edges of that and it looks really cute. This would work great with a, for a, you know, if you used a felt or if you have some wool yarn, you could crochet up a little swatch and you could put that in um the washing machine and felt it yourself, make your own little felted piece and cut it into, you know, a hard or star or some other kind of simple shape and, and whip stitch it on. It just makes a cute little patch.

This would be cute in leather too. Um, this is like the simplest way is just finding some cool buttons, um, to sew on, you know, the fabric store has all kinds of cool things or maybe you wanna go to like an antique store or go find some vintage buttons. Again. Etsy is a great resource. Just think about the personality of the person who's gonna be wearing the hat.

You know, you wanna make sure that it's something they're actually gonna wanna wear and it kind of speaks to their personality, what you're going to be adding to it and there's no shame in giving them a completely plain beanie like that is just the beanie. No, do dads, no buttons, whatever. Because some people would really prefer that they don't need a lot of stuff on their hat. Ok. So that's where you personalize something like that is, you could personalize it with a little bit of a lining on the inside, something that they like, you know, it's not going to show, but they would know it was in there or, you know, just choosing the yarn type, the yarn colors, making sure that you're choosing a yarn that they can care for.

You know, don't, don't make it in a really nice wool that you have to hand wash. If you know, they're not going to hand wash it, they're just going to throw it in the washing machine and it's going to be for a tiny little doll after that. All right. So let's talk about this one. This is for one of my kids.

She really wanted a hat to look like a cactus. Um, so I just made up the beanie and then I did these little, just some little whip stitches and I made sure that the whip stitches, they stop at this point on this side. But then they start here on this side. OK. So they're, they're not all the way up there.

So you have to have it on both sides of the beanie in order to be able to see them when this brim comes up and then the flower, it wouldn't have to necessarily be a cactus either like you could make this cute flower and just add it to a different kind of a beanie. Um But this flower can be found, excuse me. Um This flower there is a, a little right up in here about how I made the flower. I used the same process that I use in, in a video that's on the creative crochet corner website. It's called 3D flower and I just chained extra stitches to begin.

So I did more repeats of it. And then I made like a little PICO to make the little tips of it stick out and I explained how to do that. So in your little download. So if you're interested in making exactly this and you want to make this kind of flower look exactly like that. There's instructions between here and then also on the website, there's a video of me showing you how to make the 3d flower.

And then I also tell you in the download how to make the little flower center as well to add that in there. So that was kind of a fun one. And then this, this one, let's talk about this one. This one is for one of my kids and she really likes rock and roll and she really wanted to look kind of punk rock. So I, I had some of these little studs that I added, which are really easy to add through your, your knit, your crochet pieces.

But in order to kind of reinforce them and make sure that they weren't going to just come out. I let me remove these pins. I stitched a hand stitched a little piece of just uh like a T shirt fabric to the back. Let me pull out this pen here too. There we go.

I hand stitched a little piece of t-shirt. You're on to the back so that I could fasten the studs through. So the studs they come like this in case you've never used these before, these are just pyramid studs and they have two prongs, you know, they're mostly used for piercing through leather or other thick things. Um You just poke it through. I'm not actually gonna fix this, but I'll show you how it works.

You just poke it through whatever you, wherever you want it to be, the little ends come through like that. And then you take, I usually use a flathead screwdriver and I place the flathead right there and push one prong in and then I go to the other side and push the other and that's how I usually fasten my studs just with the regular flat um flathead screwdriver, just pushing those prongs in. And if you add this fabric that gives it something to grip to, so it's not gonna just kind of pull out of your, of your fabric. Another reason that you would want to put this T shirt fabric on the inside. I like to put it on the inside of um of the brim is because then if you get a pin like this enamel pin here, then you have something that that's really gonna grip to.

And it's, you know, it's not just gonna be pulling on a couple of little pieces of yarn here. At this point, it's gonna be a little more substantial to push it through that fabric. And then I just used safety pins because what's more punk rock than that to make sure that the brim doesn't fall down because this, this, these are pretty light, but this enamel pin is actually kind of secretly kind of heavy and all that stuff on the brim right there. It might actually, or, you know, if she's running around, it might start to kind of flip over this way because there is that little extra bit of weight there. So I use those.

But if you're not, you know, if you just want to put the t-shirt fabric on the back and add a cute little enamel pin, something like this to the hat, um, then you can go ahead and just tack your brim together on either side of where you're gonna put the pin and slide that in there because you want the, you want the backings of the pin to be between the brim and the hat. You don't want, you don't want the pin to go all the way through because then you're gonna have these pokey little things sticking into your forehead, which is no fun. Um, so you wanna make sure that you, you ta you can just tack it in a couple of little places or you can even tack it up here along the edge of the brim just so that this can't fall down if you've got kind of a heavy enamel pin like this, those little button pins, you know, the little round ones with the one little, um, pin back that comes across, those are really light and you would not need to worry about, um, keeping it from flopping down. Um, but just, just for these kind of heavier things that you're gonna add to it too. So, the last thing I wanted to show you just really quickly, um, is I'm writing on this hat right here and I've done quite a few tutorials on using, uh, a needle felt or, uh, felting pen to add if you're using a, a felting or a felt wool that you crocheted out of and then you can use just strands of wool and you can use a felting pen and to just basically write on your project.

I've done this a few times. Most recently, I did it in the um for the creative crochet corner. I made a Christmas stocking. I think it's called Cable Christmas stocking. And I showed you how to write somebody's name on it.

You could use that same method on a hat and write whatever you want. Or in this case, I wanted to show you what would happen if you were using an acrylic and you didn't have anything. Um You, you couldn't felt it so you can just use chain stitch embroidery to just write whatever you want to on the brim of your hat. I use two different colors to kind of make it look like there's a little bit of a shadow. So it makes the, the word kind of pop out at you in case you're wondering what this is about because maybe you're not from here.

Um This is kind of like a local thing that we say, oh, like when you bump into someone at the store, we go, oh, and it kind of means like, oops, sorry or excuse me. But we just say oop and it's just kind of funny. Um, so that's what that's about there. All right, let me just check in with you guys real quick. Um, let's see.

Ok. I'm going to make a hat as a gift for my brother. How can I know if I have it the right size? Ok. So I would suggest if you, I mean, if you can measure your brother or have him measure you maybe have him do it in a video.

So you can see if he's doing it the way that I showed you. Um, you can do that or you can probably, unless your brother, unless you know, your brother has like a really large head or really small head, you could probably just measure another adult hat. Most hats. This is a very stretchy stitch pattern and it would probably fit most people if you make it all one size. Um You could also go to the store and measure men's hats if you are.

If you don't have any hats like that at your house, you could just quick bring your little measuring tape in and kind of measure your hat, measure the hat and then make it to the same dimensions as that. Um, or you can ask to borrow a hat of his or you can ask to or you can trace a hat of his onto a piece of paper that might work too. Ashley says I'm gonna make a hat as a gift for my brother. How can I know? Oh, we are.

We just went through that, sorry. We already answered that one. ok. Ok. Wanda is saying I have a problem when attaching a pom, pom to the top making sure it stands up straight so it could be that your pom pom doesn't have enough yarn in it.

Or maybe if you're using this kind of a pom pom, if it's all kind of, if all the fur is kind of going one direction, you can use a hair dryer um from a ways away to kind of warm up your pom pom. Be careful though. You don't want to melt it. So you gotta go from a ways away and kind of come in and that heat will reshape your pom pom. Not exactly sure.

OK. Let's see. I think you've answered most of the questions. Oh, do you have any lessons for a 10 year old? She wants to learn to crochet.

I wanna know. Uh But I want her to learn the simple things first. We actually do have um a bunch of lessons that I teach called 14 Days Learn to crochet on the Creative Crochet Corner website and that is a great place to start. So I would just check that out. Um And I lead you through working back and forth in turn rows, working in the round and some, some simple projects and that sort of thing.

All right, looks like we are out of time. This has been a really fun project to do. Fun to teach. Thank you guys so much for being so present in the chat box. That was really awesome today to see all you guys in there.

Um And I hope you guys have some fun, freestyling your own beanies. Bye everybody.