Boy Beanie Pattern for Bernard

Here's the thing: everybody's very busy right now. It's been this way for quite some time, and it's difficult for two people in the modern world to find time in their schedules to sit down and learn to crochet a hat. This has been the case for Bernard Holcomb and me since I taught him to crochet in October. He's a crocheting machine with the one pattern that he knows -- as you'll recall, he made ten scarves by Christmas -- but man cannot live on scarves alone!!

I've been promising for months that we'd find time to sit down, I-hooks in hand, and make hats. I even went so far as to make it a point to repeatedly swing by his dressing room, stalker-style, during Aida in order to stumble upon him with some time on his hands. It hasn't happened. So, in the spirit of social media, and as a token of my supreme trust in Bernard's crocheting ability, I present the Boy Beanie Pattern. This pattern is from Debbie Stoller's awesome book, The Happy Hooker. It's easy, it's fun, and I can whip one out in about an hour. When I dressed the supplementary men's chorus at the Lyric for Lohengrin, before the fellows went onstage to sing a one-hour act of Wagner, I would ask, for example, Geoff what color hat he wanted. Geoff wanted green. So he went to work and so did I. When he returned after Act I, I had a beautiful, freshly-made green hat on his desk. Magic!

The pattern is for two colors; a main color and an accent color for Rows 10, 12, and 14. I usually do just one color straight through. In fact, I've gotten to the point where I just do 13 rows of Double Crochet instead of the accent rows. I'm smooth like that! You can get creative and switch out several colors if you want -- I just don't like to tuck all those ends. As I always say, if I'd wanted to sew, I would've taken up sewing.

So that's the news for now. Remember: if you want to Stitch 'n' Bitch tonight, go to Evil Squirrel Comic Book Shop -- I'm going to a concert! As always, my darlings, Peace, Love and Yarn!!

Boy Beanie

Materials

Red Heart Super Saver 971 Camouflage (MC) 
Red Heart Super Saver 0254 Pumpkin (CC)  

Finished measurements - length = 8'\ circumference = approx 20" unstretched. 

one size fits most ages teen to adult, repeat round 9 for a longer hat^ skip round 

9 for a shorter skull cap. 

Gauge - using 5.5mm (US size I) hook^ after round 4 your swatch should measure 5" 
in diameter. Adjust hook size to obtain correct gauge. 

Stitches - 

si St - slip stitch 

sc - single crochet 

dc - double crochet 

sc tbl - single crochet through the back loop only 

dc tbl - double crochet through the back loop only 

Pattern notes - this hat design is made crocheting in rounds^ each round will begin 
with a number of chains which will count as the first stitch^ and is ended by 
joining the last stitch with the top of the beginning chain creating concentric 
circles, ^^st" denotes the stitch of the previous round. 



Begin - with MC ch 3^ join with a slip st to first chain to form a ring. 

Round 1 - ch 3^ 9 dc into ring^ join with si st to top of ch 3. 10 sts. 

Round 2 - ch 2^ dc into same st^ 2 dc in each st around^ join with si st to top of 
ch 2. 20 sts. 

Round 3 - ch 2^ dc into same st^ dc in next st^ * (2 dc in next st^ dc in next st)^ 
repeat from * 8 more times^ join with si st to top of ch 2. 30 sts. 

Round 4 - si st into back loop of same stitch^ ch 2, do in next st^ 2 do in next 
st^ ^ (do in next 2 sts^ 2 do in next st)^ repeat from ^ 8 more times^ join with si 
St to top of ch 2. 40 sts. 

Round 5 - ch 2, dc into same st^ dc in next 3 sts^ * (2 dc in next st^ dc in next 3 
sts)^ repeat from * 8 more times^ join with si st to top of ch 2. 50 sts. 

Round 6 - si st into back loop of same stitch^ ch 2, dc in next st^ 2 dc in next 
st^ ^ (dc in next 9 sts^ 2 dc in next st)^ repeat from ^ 3 more times, dc in last 7 
sts, join with si st to top of ch 2. 55 sts. 

Rounds 7 , 8, 9 - si st into back loop of same stitch, ch 2, dc in each st around, 
join with si st to top of ch 2. hold MC to back of work 

Round 10 - join CC, ch 1, sc in each st around, join with si st to beg ch . 

Round 11 - with MC, ch 2, dc tbl in each st around, join with si st to top of ch 2, 

Round 12 - with CC, ch 1, sc in each st around, join with si st to beg ch . 

Round 13 - with MC, ch 2, dc tbl in each st around, join with si st to top of ch 2, 

Round 14 - with CC, ch 1, sc in each st around, join with si st to beg ch . 
tie off CC. 

Round 15 - with MC ch 1, sc tbl in each st around, join with si st to beg ch . 

Round 16 - ch 1, sc in each st around, join with si st to top of ch . 

tie off MC and weave in yarn ends with a tapestry needle.