Finished my beard hat

[TGsDad]

Just finished my hat. It probably took 3 sessions to finish it - stretched over a couple of weeks. The attached pop-up ad from Fab is what gave me the idea. After getting some suggestions from you folks, I looked at some ideas and came up with the blue-green and white hat attached.

I used wool yarn from deep down in my yarn bag(s). The white yarn was an old JCPenney skein that didn't even have any care instructions on it. Now that is old! The blue-green Red Heart had a tag of $1.29 on it. So that one was old, too. I was primarily looking for functionality and not style.

It was all done with two-yarns in hdc stitching, except for sc where the hat band turns and the sc row where it comes around the chin. As you can see, I used both colors for the two-yarn separate beard portion that was attached after the hat was finished.

It fits tightly around the ears and chin where I decreased the stitches to make it snug. I wore it outside a few minutes ago when the temperature was 26 F and the wind was 19 mph with gusts to 36. The wind chill is 13 F. I honestly did not feel any wind coming through the yarn. It was nice and toasty warm.

The top row (under the nose) was also snugged up to the face, because I do not like having my glasses steamed up when I'm outside in the cold weather. Most commercial hoods and face masks can't be used without steaming up my glasses.

BTW, my next book will (I hope) be posted to my website just before Christmas. Lots of editing still to do so I won't be crocheting much of anything before then. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

[Kathy B.]

That is so cool. would love to have that pattern for the hunters in my family. I would make them each one.. will you share where to buy the pattern?? Its Great.

[armybrat]

That is so cool. would love to have that pattern for the hunters in my family. I would make them each one.. will you share where to buy the pattern?? Its Great.

Kathy, there's a free pattern here: Crochet Beard Pattern | JJCrochet's Blog

[TGsDad]

Welllll, I crafted it all from my head (and for my head - lol), so there is no pattern. I did consider writing it down while I was making it, but ... Maybe I could go back and figure it out. I'll try.

If you are in to try and rip and try and rip, here are the basics of what I did. First of all, I wear a 7.25 inch hat - larger than the usual baseball cap. I used a size K hook and started with 70 chain stitches, using two-yarns at a time. I used up a full skein of white and probably 2/3 of the blue-green 4 oz skein. I tried it on after nearly every round just to adjust its size if necessary. Remember that this hat sits on the back of the head coming down to the neck at the back, so the circumference of this is not the same as a regular hat. After 4 rounds of white, I made a round of sc and decreased one stitch for every 10. Said otherwise, I decreased 7 stitches spread evenly in the round. OK, now you have the finished the "outer" band around the ears. Next you will be making the hat part - white first then switching to blue-green. Next I made a round of white hdc putting back in the 7 stitches to bring it back to 70 again. I made a total of 6 rounds of white after the sc round. This was so that the white on the hat would show with the brim rolled up.

This is probably the most difficult part to explain. Easy to do, but I gotta be careful to explain it right. Using the width of six rows (after the sc-round) as a measuring tape (go back and read that part again if it is confusing), I put the unfinished hat on and measured the number of 6-round-widths that would be needed to finish the hat. {EXAMPLE: I measured 20 rows that would be needed. BUT, it would only really take 10 ROUNDS to finish up that amount of space. That is because each round takes up the space of two rows.} Now for a little math: if I have to be closed up in 10 rounds and I have 70 stitches in each round, I have to decrease 70 divided by 10 or 7 stitches in every round. Yours may come out differently. Just remember that you should not put in a decrease right above another decrease or you will develop a non-round pattern in your work.

Also, if you follow my directions, you will end up with a santa's elf shaped point in the hat - like I did. That's how I know that. So when you get down to about a one-inch opening, just abandon the "round" attitude and close up the opening.

The "beard" portion also has a silly personal wrinkle in it. I was running out of white and I wanted a different appearance to the beard part anyway, so I used one white & one blue-green and made a trial patch of hdc. I liked the look, so I ripped it all out and began with 50 chains. I kept measuring it on my face taking care to not stretch it out. I went from the middle of one ear to the other one following my jaw line. Yup, the chains are on the jaw line with hdc's above and below the chain. Ready? Here we go. After the 50 chains, add two more and turn. Crochet 50 hdc, but don't count them-just go across the row, two chains, turn. Now this next row will be under the jaw and closest to the neck so I wanted this a little snugger. I decreased 5 stitches in the row with one every 8-10 stitches.

OK, now you have to get back to the original chain row. This won't show as it will be under the hat, so just slip-stitch along the end of your work, chain two and dive into the chain row with hdc's again.

Now stop and put your hook down. Stick your thumbs into your ears and put your forefingers on your jaw line. Then swing your forefingers up until they both touch your nose. Notice that your fingers touched when they got to the nose? (Wipe your fingers before you pick up your yarn again.) This means you will have to continally decrease to keep your finished work touching the face. I don't remember how many I decreased, I just kept putting it up to my face. I crocheted 3 rows (after the chain row). Then comes the mouth row. I counted 20 stitches for the length of my mouth and marked the center of my row. Then did hdc until I got to 10 stitches from the center, then 20 chains, skip 20 and finish the mouth row with hdc. One more row would have just about reached my nose. But my nose gets cold in the winter so I put in another row (2 total) above the mouth row.

Put the hat on and mark the center of your ears (on the hat, not on your ears). Then hold up the beard part and decide how high up into the hat they can be attached to give a nice snug, but not stretched fit. I crocheted them in, but if I did it again I would probably sew them in. That's a lot of yarn to pull together w/ slip stitches.

Enjoy! And I hope you enjoyed the bit of humor that I tried to put in here. Got to have fun while you're working a project! BTW, I only had about a yard of white yarn left, so I made a string w/ a fuzzy end on it for the cats. I don't know how many times I had to tie up my cat-broken-chewed-yarn while I was working on the hat.

This is the backwards way to make a hat. Usually a hat starts at the center-top and ends up with the brim. Sorry, I was so focused on making the ear-covering portion snug, that I did it this way. Thanks for asking, Kathy B. I wasn't sure I could remember what I had done when I started writing this.

[TGsDad]

Armybrat, wish I'd seen yours before I began typing. Mine w/ hdc is probably more in tune w/ our cold weather. Thanks,

[Landon]

WOW, you did a fantastic job putting your bearded hat together and I love the humour you add!! I am so glad you joined us here!

[Kathy B.]

Thank you so much TGs Dad for taking the time to do this for me.. you are so kind. I am going to try making one I hope by next week. and Thank you armybrat for your link too. I will deff. check it out.. I was thinking to make the hunters each one in my family. I like how it will keep your face warm and still let you be comfortable wearing glasses

[Val]

looks great! thanks for sharing!

[fall3n-ang3l]

that is just amazing,first saw one of them on pinterest agers ago and just thought it was amazing,might have to try at doing that too,but i wish people would stop posting pics of there projects as my list of "to do" list is just getting bigger and bigger ha ha ha

[libertylady64]

you did an awesome job! the hat is laughing at old man winter's cold conditions!