Stitches

How do I crochet an adult hat that will fit properly?

I am an intermediate-level crochet-er who has modified patterns. I am trying to crochet a hat for my husband, and am using a pattern for an adult hat. It is a double-crochet spiral pattern. I have gotten about half-way through the pattern twice, have found the hat to be too big, took out stitches, and changed the increase intervals. What I'm hoping for is a way to pre-determine sizing, perhaps based on head circumference. If you know how to do this, please let me know. Thanks!

Public Comments

1. I don't know if this will help or not, but have you tried using a size smaller hook? I know this helps me when I do stuff for my toddlers. If the pattern is for babies I'll use a hook a little larger to make it slightly bigger to fit my toddler girls. This would probably work in reverse as well...though I am not sure since I don't know exactly what the project entails...but just a suggestion that might work. Good luck! 0=)
2. An interesting challenge especially if it's to be a surprise. It doesn't matter if you are an intermediate-level crochet-er. You can take all the time in the world in making the hat once you've established the dimensions of this man's cranium. Here's how you do it. First, arrange a series of tea pots somewhere at around the height of your subject like on a shelf or something. The tea pots should all vary in size. Then you must routinely find a way to get him to stand next to this arrangement where you would hold your thumb out at arms length, close one eye and squint with the other and determine which tea pot is the closest size to his head. He may wonder why you constantly do this and you'll have to keep making things up such as you have recently become a fan of the Fonz on 'Happy Days' and your kitchen kind of reminds you of Arnold's. (hint: start saying 'Ayyyyyy' when you hold out your thumb) After you made a tea pot/cranium match, secure the tea pot and begin fabricating this hat around it. Be sure that you don't crochet a 'trunk' on the hat to compensate for the spout, unless your man has a gargantuan noggin. Presto. You've made a hat that fits. The unfortunate part is that there is going to be some poor tea pot out there saying 'holy shit it's cold!"
3. Why not instead of using the patterns as written, measure your husband head at the widest point and start at the bottom instead of at the top just measure and decrease as you go along. Remember there are not really any rules when it comes to crocheting.
4. This is where gauge will come in. If you determine how many stitches per inch your gauge is, then measure hubby's head, multiply this measurement by the number of stitches per inch from your gauge swatch, that's how many stitches should be in each row. If you measure at different intervals, that will tell you where to make the decreases. One the other hand... if you are following a pattern, again, do a guage swatch to see if you are on gauge with the pattern.
5. I have a fool proof skull cap pattern in dc! The way my pattern works is you make a circle in dc a little smaller than the top of your husbands head (crown). then you work one row of sc, next row and all remaining rows dc, working even, no increases. work this until when on his head the edge is about and inch or so below his ear lobes (so you can fold up for a double layer on ears). for the last row work a reverse sc (gives a finished look). The great thing is that this pattern is not dependent on # of sts but simple measurements. You can use any weight yarn, and any size hook, even any st you prefer! Enjoy, any questions e mail...I have many custom patterns, and a large library if you're looking for something specific.