Work In Progress.

You've probably seen this photo on various social media. Absolutely darling hats with a link that takes you over to "whoot" or wherever to download a free pattern which in turn takes you to another link which in turn takes you to another link.... Well, you get the idea.

It took literally HOURS to locate the pattern and although the pictures don't match these the pattern is the same. I found one version of the free pattern without flowers and a pattern-to-purchase with the flowers for $8.99 (OUCH).

Doesn't sound like much, but right now $8.99 for a pattern isn't in the budget. So... I downloaded the free pattern and set to work.


It was offered in two sizes; Teen/Adult and Child. According to the instructions, the Teen/Adult is made with worsted weight yarn, which I have plenty on hand. The child's is made with size 5 crochet cotton, which I do not have on hand. I wanted to make the child's hat because I think they're absolutely adorable so I dug around in my stash and found some lightweight kid mohair (pink, white, lilac, red). YIPPEE! Not the ideal yarn for this project by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it would let me know how the pattern works up.

First I wanted to get a feel for the pattern, so I pulled out my trusty worsted weight cotton and crocheted a few rounds of the adult size hat. The first thing I noticed was that the person started with a chain/join instead of using a magic ring. I used a magic ring because it doesn't leave a hole in the center of the pattern.

After a few rounds I got the rhythm of the pattern down and could see it starting to take shape, so I pulled out the mohair and set to work with the size C hook. For those of you who don't crochet - that's a very small hook. Five rows in I realized that the mohair just wasn't cutting it. Mohair is hard to work with because it's so fuzzy and using a tiny hook was simply adding to the difficulty.

Back to the yarn stash to search for something smaller than worsted. What I found was some Caron Simply Soft and Bebe Cotton/Soy, both in lovely shades of lilac. A little bigger gauge, but it should work up okay.

 Or so I thought.

I started with the Simply Soft. Another five rounds in and I realized that the hat was going to be adult sized if I continued. (rip, rip, rip). Switched to the cotton/soy blend and the same thing. Ripped it back to the beginning and chose a different size hook. Same thing. (rip, rip, rip).

By this time I was pretty frustrated. I had spent hours looking for the pattern and trying to get it to look right and nothing was going right. So I put on my thinking cap. How could I make it right? Hmmmmm....

Daughter is really good at crocheting. She can look at a finished product and figure out how to make it with no problem. But she's 9+ hours away from me (and oh, how I miss her). So I remembered what she had to say about increases and decreases and how to change the gauge to make a pattern either bigger or smaller and decided to attempt it. But what I did was to look at a pattern I knew worked up correctly (Galilee Hat). Specifically, I looked at the number of beginning stitches and the number of stitches at the largest point and made the appropriate adjustments to the pattern.

This time around the pattern is working out okay, but it's still going to be Adult rather than Child size. Although the free version doesn't look EXACTLY like the cute hats pictured at the beginning of this post, it's still pretty.

Plus, as a bonus I now know I can change the pattern to make it look like the ones in the photo. That's a pretty good take away, don't you think?

I still want to make one of the cute ones.

So... I purchased the $8.99 pattern. bad 'cause i'm broke. Will let you know how it proceeds.

Until then, y'all stay warm and be safe!