Crochet Project #1

Old winter hat turns into new beanie!

To do my first post I had to find some yarn I had not used yet. I found a small amount of green yarn waste from a previous winter hat I’ve done a loooong time ago. Looking at the green hat I concluded it was time to undo it and do another one since I didn’t use it that much.

I went to Ravelry website to look for some free pattern and after some time I found “Divine hat” by Sarah Arnold and decided it was time to finally do a beanie for myself.

At first you don’t see the pattern quite clearly but I’d say after the 7^th row you start to understand what is going on. The final result may be better if you actually do with the proper yarn Sarah Arnold herself recommends to be used. My yarn is a little bit rougher that I think it should be to this project but I really liked my new beanie.

It is an easy project if you are beginning your crocheting path, but it is also a pretty one for those more experienced. It requires 4 stitches: single crochet, double crochet, foundation half double crochet (fhdc), and back post double crochet (bpdc). But you’ll mostly do dc and fhdc. I explained sc and dc on Crochet 101. I’ll now explain fhdc and bpdc to you. Despite the name, they are very easy to do.

Basically, think of a dc stitch. Now, instead of inserting your needle on the loop of the stitch in the previous row, you’ll insert your needle behind/in front of the stitch’s knot. The difference between fhdc and bpdc is from where the needle is coming from. If it is in the front and goes behind the knot, then it is a fhdc as in the following pictures:

You star as a dc, doing a loop on your needle from the thread. Then you insert your needle on the right side of the stitch you want to pop up from the front of your project piece. You go all the way in the back until the needle appears at the left side of the stitch. You make a loop on your needle that you'll pull through the back of the soon to be popping stitch. You'll have three loops on your needle and you'll make a fourth one. From here it is just like a double crochet.

Now, if it is from behind and goes in the front of the stitch, you’re doing a bpdc stitch as in the following pictures:

Same as a double crochet: Make a loop on your needle from your thread before you insert your needle on the right side of the stitch you want to push back from the back of your project piece. You go all the way in the front until the needle goes to the left side of the stitch. You make a loop on your needle that you'll pull through the front of the stitch. Be careful here or you'll pull the wrong thread. Then you'll have three loops on your needle and you'll make a fourth one. From here it is just like a double crochet to finish it up too.

And if you do them in a succession it will look close to this:

This is actually the last 5 rows of my beanie. I felt the need to add a last row of single crochet stitches just to wrap it up.

So, since it is a free pattern, you can download it from Ravelry website. It was the second pattern I tried to do for a winter hat (I’ll probably do another post about my first attempt since it developed to a future project idea). It is a very nice explained pattern, not at all difficult to understand. As I also said in my Crochet 101 post, I learned crochet by doing it and I still get confused by the stitches’ names so you can trust me when I say it is not that difficult.

Here is my old and no-longer-existing winter hat and my brand new beanie:

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Mrs. Vieira