Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A different way to crochet a ribbed brim

Hey there all! So school's started, and of course that's been loads of fun. I've been trying to keep crafting, especially since my friends' Christmas gifts still aren't finished. I'm so close to finishing this next one, just need to add some finishing touches.

Anyways, I decided to post up a little technique I used on this hat I'm making for my friend. So I'm sure a lot of you crocheters have heard of crocheting in the back loop to create a ribbed effect that even has stretch. If not, here's a quick video showing how. I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly. :)

In my experience, I have only seen projects that either start with the ribbing and work their way up (like the fingerless gloves I made a while back), or sew the ribbing on later.  Or consist completely of ribbing, but that's not the target of this tutorial.

So I came up with a simple little method to attach the brim as you make it. Lazy as I am, this was an amazing discovery! And look! It even looks nice!



So you want to learn an easy way to add a little more elasticity to your hats? Click on Read More and let's begin!

I feel like this process lends itself best to hats and maybe even to top-down construction of clothes. It works really well for me, but the one real drawback is that you won't really know how wide the brim can actually stretch until you try it out. I eventually found that alternating between skipping one and skipping two stitches seems to give a good grip. However, I'm considering doing more (only skipping one stitch), just because my friend is a guy and thus has a big head, haha. We'll see.

So now we begin!

Step 1: Finish off the body of your hat, or whatever else you're making. For me, I make hats in a spiral, so this involved slip stitching into to the first stitch of the round.


Like so!
Step 2: Decide how wide your brim will be. Chain an appropriate number of stitches, plus one for your turning chain. I wanted it to be six stitches wide, so I chained 7.


 Step 3: Skipping the first chain, single crochet your way down as you would normally do in the first row of any project.


Step 4: Remove your hook from the loop (I pulled my yarn out more so the loop would stay in place. This is where you have to make decisions. If you decide to skip one stitch each time you join the brim to the body of the hat, the circumference (the distance around) of your brim will be about the same as your hat. If it's a teensy bit too loose, you can tighten it more by alternating skipping one with skipping two.

In any case, decide on your "pattern" of skipping. Now look carefully. The stitch where your work is attached is your starting point. I skipped one, so I put my hook through (from inside to outside, since the next row is worked with inside facing me) in the second stitch away. See?


Step 5: Insert the hook back into the loop and pull it through.


Step 6: Chain 1 for your turning chain and continue single crocheting as you normally would.


And after that, just continue! Finish this row, turn, work the next row, and again you will remove your hook, skip X number of stitches, and pull your loop through. It's easy, and it looks perfectly legit.


Enjoy using this simple technique! Once this hat is finished, I'll show you the finished product and an approximate pattern for the hat itself. Until next time!

-Annie

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6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tutorial! Thanks for linking to Your so Very Creative! I featured it today at Featuring You Friday! Go check it out and grab a button! http://memakingdo.blogspot.com/2011/01/featuring-you-friday_21.html

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  2. I am following this tutorial this very minute. Once I started it, it's very easy to continue. Thanks for the awesome easy way to "fake" ribbing on my hat. When it's done, I'll try to remember to post a picture for you on Craftster - there's lots of other stuff to do once I'm done the ribbing!

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  3. Wow! Great tutorial...works great on my hat. Love the photos and clarity of your directions.

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  4. I was looking for a way to tighten the circumference of a hat and came across your site. Thanks for sharing your tutorial.

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  5. AWESOME!!! Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for the well detailed instructions and sharp pictures!

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  6. Super easy. Thank you for the instructions.

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