Laura
Winter Hat (Part 5) yikes!
It's been awhile since we checked in on my winter hat idea so let's review the progress to date... It all started with a vacuum cleaner. Strange but true. Its innovative features started me on a kick to rethink designs from the ground up - taking nothing for granted. Developing a hat wish list seemed like the next logical step and then it was time to play. Brilliant or bizarre? You decide which category the Winter Super Hero ear flap falls into (the kids are still rolling their eyes over that one but they want it!); followed by my personal favorite the 3-needle i-cord join to put it all together. But after all this I realized I forget to tell you how it all started. So back to the beginning we go.
One of the core elements of my new hat was a curved edge. Something that would follow the contour of the head, flow gracefully over the eyes then swoop down to cover the ears. It lead to my first design dilemma --> how to knit the hat from the bottom up, shape the bottom edge and still come back for the i-cord bind off and join (for the ear flaps). The answer, of course, is the provisional cast on. I used Sarah’s nicely illustrated crochet cast on with a twist – I also used the provisional cast on method for my increases.
The first step is to create a crochet chain the long enough to accommodate your total number of stitches. Pick up in the middle of the chain instead of the end, making sure to leave enough “bumps” on each end for your increases. I learned, after a few attempts, to add about ten extra for each end since I never seemed to have enough stitches on one of the two ends.
The result was just what I was looking for, it’s super easy, flexible (you can add any number of stitches) and results in a nice smooth edge (no cast on jogs in to ruin the line of the curve). There are two, three, then four increases in the photo above.
Here are the stitches that will be above the ear flap. I picked up the stitches at the end of every row so they are ready to be worked on the next row.
Here is a view of a purl side pickup. If you want to try this on your own just be a bit careful pulling out the yarn at the increase points.
This time I'm pulling out the red provisional cast on to replace it with a matching navy edge but it would be nice as a contrasting color edge with a non-rolling stitch. I think it is easier to start with a quick crochet chain than to crochet an edge on later and you don't really even need to know how to crochet to make a chain. mmmm... how about at the edge of a nicely curved sleeve cuff? What do you think?
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