1-2-3 Flip-brim Beanie free pattern

Two new free patterns released in two days! Wow!

Like a lot of us, I get busy with day-to-day things as well as just simply spending my time actually WORKING on yarncraft projects rather than blogging about them, so it can sometimes be months between my posts. Sigh. But sorry, there are only so many hours in a day. I'm sure you've been there, too, and can understand.

Today I am releasing this pattern for a 1-2-3 Flip-brim Beanie because in the USA, October has become the single biggest month for cancer-awareness causes in the form of the Pink October breast cancer movement.



Cancer (not specifically breast cancer) has profoundly touched my life and the lives of so many people who are close to me, and because of this, I feel moved to make and donate attractive caps each year to support the patients battling this terrible disease at a nearby cancer treatment center.

I offer this pattern for free, forever, in honor of Pink October and all the men and women who have battled and survived or lost the fight to any form of cancer.

If you download this pattern, please consider making and donating at least one of these hats to the patients at your local cancer center. Thank you so much.

The “1-2-3” portion of the name for this beanie comes from the texture that is achieved by working in repeating rounds of sc, hdc, and dc.

These instructions yield a simple but sophisticated cap with about a 20-22 inch circumference, depending on your yarn and tension, which should comfortably fit the head of an average adult - and particularly adults who have lost their hair to the cruel ravages of chemotherapy. The fit is intentionally a bit oversized (although not slouchy per se) for comfortable ease. The brim flips upward as you work the brim instructions and will remain in place on its own.

If you are making this hat to give to a chemo patient, choose a soft, hypoallergenic fiber by following the guidelines provided by Halos of Hope.

BOO! My skull balaclava mask free tutorial

Boo! Happy New Year!

Sure, I might have my holidays a little mixed up, but I felt inspired to crochet a skull mask/balaclava on Dec. 31 while waiting for the clock to strike midnight for the new year. I got the idea from the ebook "Manly Knits."

I started out making a basic hat shape in double crochet.

I made the hat length a little longer than standard so that the bottom of the "hat" portion sat just below my eyebrows. At that point, I measured how many stitches wide I would need an opening to be to accommodate both of my eyes (side to side) and continued adding rows to the hat going back and forth (turning my work when I got to the end of a row) to build height on either side of the large space for my eyes.

I had to try the hat on several times during this process to tell by feel when the eye hole space was tall enough for me to see through easily. Then I chained across the gap (using the same number of chain stitches as the number of stitches wide my eye hole space was wide) and joined the chain with a slip stitch to the top of the next double crochet stitch on the other side of the gap.

Then I continued in the round to add a couple more rows of double crochet, making 1 dc in each chain across the eye space, then finished off.

To fill in the vertical space between my eyes, I tried on the hat and placed a stitch marker on the stitch in line with where the inner edge of each of my eyes was in relation to the top of the eye space. Then I reattached the working yarn to a stitch with one of the markers and worked double crochet stitches just until I reached the stitch with the other marker. Then I turned my work and added a couple more rows of double crochet until the height of the section I was working matched up to the total height of the eye space. I broke the working yarn, leaving a long tail, and whip-stitched the center piece I just worked to the bottom of the eye space.

For the finishing touches, I reattached the working yarn to the bottom edge of the mask and worked a few pointy teeth. Lastly, I used a small amount of black yarn to embroider on some nasal "holes," and voila. Creepy enough for you? Bwah-ha-haaa.

This means I already have my Halloween costume ready for when, 10 months from now, come Oct. 31, I will be handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. It even fits comfortably over my glasses.

Getting mathematical with hats

I recently made the Brain Waves Beanie by Liz McQueen.

When reading her pattern, I found it interesting the way she included measurements for the diameter of the top of the hat at the end of each increasing round. (Most hat patterns only include the number of stitches you should have at the end of the round.)

Information about the diameter is important because when you stop increasing the size of the circle, that measurement will determine the circumference of the hat when you multiply it by Pi (as we learned in school with our friendly geometric formula: Pi times Diameter equals Circumference). And the circumference should correspond to the size of the head on the person you're making the hat for. Therefore, if the diameter of the top of the hat is about 7 inches across, then the finished hat will be about 22 inches around, because 7 times 3.14 equals 22 (in round numbers).

Alternatively, if you know the person's head circumference and want to determine your pattern from that measurement, the formula to tell you how large the diameter should be is Circumference divided by Pi. Therefore, if you want your hat to have a finished circumference of 22 inches, then 22 divided by 3.14 equals a diameter of about 7 inches.

This disc measures about 6.5 inches across (when laid flat; the edges are trying to curl in the photo), so that means if I stop increasing here, the finished hat will be about 20.5 inches.

Each round of (in this case) double crochet worked with a J hook using worsted-weight yarn is about .5 inches high, which means that each successive round adds about 1 inch to the diameter of the circle. If I add another increasing round to what I have in the photo (making the diameter about 7.5 inches), the finished hat circumference will be 23.5 inches. (A bit on the large size for most folks.)

Alternatively, if I made the same hat top using half-double crochet, the diameter size would be proportionally smaller.

When you factor in the differences in height that the various stitches have, plus how those stitches are affected by the weight of the yarn and the size of your hook, the potential combinations can be mind-boggling. Which is probably why pattern designers emphasize the importance of always working a test swatch before attempting a pattern.

Lap blanket in double crochet

This is the type of piece that happens when you have a skein or two of yarn and no other ideas for how to use it up! Oh well, it turned out to be just the right size to use as a lap warmer/lap blanket.