Sad news, more baby hats, and a freebie

Lots to write today, so grab a drink and hang on.

First off, I’m sad to say that my husband’s mother lost her battle with pancreatic cancer early Wednesday morning.  She was 76.  I won’t go into all the details here.  Just suffice it to say that cancer sucks, and that makes 3 great women in my life who in my opinion were taken way before their time.  My grandmother Nana, who taught me to crochet, died from lung cancer back in 1981.  I was 2 weeks shy of turning 11.  My mom died from what they thought was pancreatic cancer until they opened her up and found that a tumor had burst inside her abdomen.  It had been wrapped around her pancreas, so the ultrasound was misleading.  She left in 1994.  She got to see me get married but never met any of my boys.  And now Steve’s mom.  I’m so grateful that the boys are probably old enough to be able to remember her later on (my youngest is almost 6 now), and at the same time pissed as all get out, cause now they have no grandmother at all.  Did I mention that cancer sucks?

Ok then, here’s some more baby hats I’ve recently finished up.

#11 here is the top hat pattern below with a few mods.  I listed those below right after the pattern.

#12 is that same crocheted granny square one from before with a shell border.

#13 is a feather and fan top down one I’m still working on.  I’ll put up a picture and post that pattern as well when I’m all done.

And the reason I’ve only finished a few hats are many.  Partly because I’m working on a sweater for Patrick and Russ to share out of the leftover yarn from my $12 Coat of Many Colors.  They kept borrowing it to sleep in, which if you think about it, looks especially odd when it’s that large.  I finished up with the first arm, I think, but I have to have someone try it on to make sure before I start in on the second sleeve.  Also this:

It’s a hat for my sister’s hubby using this chart. Not your everyday snowflake fair isle, huh?

And remember that cute little top hat like one I did?

I thought about it, and since I’ve already done another one, and had a fabulous idea for a 3rd from a friend, I’m going to post the pattern I made up.  Here comes your freebie:

Ch 4, 11 dc in 4th ch, join with sl st to top of ch 3.  Your ch 3 in every round will count as a dc for the total dc count at the end of each round.
Rnd 2 – ch 3, 1 dc in same st as sl st, 2 dc in each dc, join with sl st to top of ch 3- 24 dc
Rnd 3 – ch 3, 2 dc in next dc, (1 dc in next dc, 2 in next dc) around, close with st st- 36dc
Rnd 4 – ch 3, 1 dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc, (1 dc in next 2 dc  2 in next dc) around, close with sl st- 48 dc
Rnd 5 – ch 2, 1 dc around post from the back of previous row, close with sl st- 48 still.  See picture below for details of this step.  This makes a cute little ridge as ou turn the corner to go down the sides of the hat.
Rnd 6 through 10 – ch 3, 1 dc in each dc, join with sl st.
Rnd 11 – ch 3, 1 dc in same st as sl st, 2 dc in each remaining dc, join with st st and fasten off – 96 dc

Here’s the pic of Rnd 5 detail:

Does that clear it up?  You flip the crochet over so you’re going in from the back side.  Stick the hook into and around the first dc, yo, draw a loop through, and then finish off the dc like normal.  Do that all the way around the circle, and it makes a cute little rim thing on the top of the hat.  You could accomplish almost the same thing by dc’ing into the back loop of each dc, but to me this way’s more sturdy.  Plus with this, you get an actual little pokey-outie part that with the dc’ing into the back loop thing you only get a nice little line.

Options – I’ve already made another where I did not do the post dc on round 5; I just started right in on the 1 dc in each dc but, which made it curve more downward, and I added a ruffled border instead by doing 2 rounds of the 2 dc in each dc.  My next one, thanks to a great idea, will be a Cat in the Hat color scheme.

One great thing about this pattern is that it’s easily customizable.  Just increase the circle until it measures across a smidge smaller than the size you want, cause it’ll stretch a bit.  Then start on down the sides.  It would look really cute with a bigger floppier border on it as well, with maybe a flower pinned onto it.  Or just do it all in black, with a couple rows of white just before  the brim to really look like a baby top hat.   You could also do one row near the bottom with a dc, ch 1, skip next dc, dc in next dc thing, so as to make sort of an eyelet row, and then thread a pretty ribbon through.  I seem to be on a girl kick for what was supposed to be more of a boy hat pattern.  Maybe it’s a sign.