Large Crochet Graduation Hat And Pattern

Ok, how do say this, my crochet, adult-size crochet hat is…not great? A failure? A partial failure? Totally cool? I’m not sure how I feel about it.

As I mentioned before, I get quite a few questions about how to adjust my small keepsake crochet graduation hats to be wearable. Well, I like a challenge (sometimes), and I decided to see what I could do. I couldn’t just increase the size of the little hats because a real human head needs something different. I went for it and this is what happened.

Lessons learned

I actually like the beanie part. It fit really nicely on the head so I might keep this for later use on other hats.

As you could predict, a large crochet square isn’t going to be very rigid. In fact, even with two strands (I used two strands), it’s quite floppy. It looked ridiculous. I tried to think how I could fix it and came up with two ideas.

1. Stiffen the top with starch or something so it could actually look like a graduation hat or
2. Start over. I could make two large squares and put a piece of cardboard in the middle.

I tried stiffening the top (because who wants to start over?). I didn’t have starch but I found some recipes to stiffen crochet. Most were for little projects or for doilies, not for large crochet squares that are supposed to be for graduation hats. I did it anyway. I used glue and water for this experiment. I know! Glue and water, who knew? I used up my glue by adding water and it was too thick. I added a little more water. It was still too thick. I used it anyway.

With the top sewed on, I placed my hat on my new blocking squares and added my concoction.

I didn’t think I’d be able to sew the beanie part onto the top part after it was all stiff with glue so I sewed it on first (that was probably a mistake). I let sit for a few days to dry and when I took it off the mat…I realized the mixture didn’t go completely through and so the top was only stiffish on one side, the underside. I probably should have tried to stiffen the top piece separately so that I could have made sure it was all completely wet and just tried to sew it together that way. But who knows, that might not have worked either.

In any case, it was partially stiff, so at least it was better than it was before.

I could have done a better job of sewing it so that the top was a little more centered but that was tricky trying to get it just right.

I’m contemplating trying a new hat with the two panels and a piece of cardboard so there’s no glue involved. I might also try crocheting the top part directly from the beanie so that it’s perfectly in the center. I don’t know. I just might stop with this one. We’ll see. 🙂

If you stayed with me this far and for some reason want to try your own, here’s what I did.

Pattern

Yarn used: Caron one pound yarn,

I hook

Cap/beanie part: I started the beanie from the bottom up and left a hole towards the top. I then made a large crochet square for the top. I used two strands of yarn to make it all stiff. I crocheted the beanie in rows and not in the round. This is a loose pattern that I adjusted as I went to fit my head so you could easily add more chains and adjust the decreases as needed. The starting chain was big enough to fit around my head.

With two strands of yarn, Ch 58

Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc across (56 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 2-6: sc across (56 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 7: Dec 7x’s, evenly spaced (49 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 8-9: sc across (49 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 10:  dec 5x’s evenly spaced (45 sc), ch 1, turn

Row 11-13: sc across (45 sc), fasten off with a long tail

Use long tail to sew up the side of the of the beanie. There should be a whole at the top of the head. You can see the the seam in the blocking photo.

Square top: This is just a bunch of single crochet rows That form a square.

With two strands of yarn, ch 31

Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc across (29 sc), ch1, turn

Row 2 -32: sc across, ch 1, turn

Fasten on last row (row 32)

Sew the smaller hole area of the beanie to the square, trying to get it as centered as possible. Use whatever stiffening agent you like to stiffen the top of the hat. Add a button to the top of the cap and make your tassel.