Puff Stitch Slouchy Beanie (Child size pictured. Pattern includes adult size as well.)

Recently I've been looking at hat patterns online. I was looking for inspiration and trying to decide what type of hat I wanted to make. I wanted something fun that would work up fairly quickly. While looking, it didn't take me long to stumble across the blog All About Ami and the Urban Jungle Crochet Slouchy Beanie by: Vickie Howell. 

There were several things I loved about this pattern including the texture of the puff stitch, the wide, flat band, and the loose slouchy style. 

There were, however, a few things I did not like about the pattern.The first thing I didn't like was that the band was worked separately from the main body of the hat. I like the added strength of having them worked together. My main issue with the Urban Jungle pattern is that it is worked in a tube and then you have to "close" the end of the hat. I didn't like the added bulk and generally messy look "closing" the hat creates.

Because of the things I didn't like about this pattern, I decided to write my own with the Urban Jungle Beanie as inspiration. This pattern is worked in rounds starting with the back of the hat instead of the band and using increases to build the "slouch" so that you don't have to "close" the hat at the end. This also takes away some of the added bulk and results in less yarn being used over all. I also worked the band into the pattern instead of having it worked separate from the main body of the hat.

Pictures included are of the child size. Adult size is included in the pattern.

This pattern works up fairly quickly and is easy enough for a beginner to follow. The pattern is worked in such a way that makes it easy to use multiple colors and even work the whole thing in stripes. Have fun experimenting with this one!

This was a quick write up so if you come across any problems or have questions about any part of this pattern, please leave a comment and I will answer as soon as I can.

Enjoy,

Stormi

 My daughter sporting the Slouchy Beanie I just finished.

 I love the texture of the puff stitches in this hat!

 Because of the way I wrote up this pattern, the back looks super neat and has no added bulk.

Cute flower I decided to add to the band of my daughter's hat. It was not originally a part of this pattern, but it looked so cute I decided to include it at the end of this pattern. (Flower looks a little weird in this pic.)

Materials:

Size J-10/6.00MM Crochet Hook

1 1/2 - 2 balls of Peaches & Cream (or similar) 100% cotton, worsted weight yarn. (Color pictured is Black Currant) You can use yarn of a different material (such as Acrylic) however, depending on the material you use and the weight of the yarn, it might change the look and feel of the finished hat. Also, when using other types of yarn keep in mind that changing weights will affect the size of the hat.

Yarn needle

Stitches:

Ch: Chain

Sl St: Slip Stitch

Sc: Single Crochet

Puff: Puff Stitch

To work a puff stitch:

Work (Yo, (yarn over) insert hook into st or space, yo and pull through) 3 times (you should have 7 loops on your hook.) Yo and pull through all but the last loop on the hook. Yo and pull through last two loops.

Pattern:

Rnd 1: Ch 5, join with a slst to the first ch to form a loop. Work (puff st, ch 1) into the loop 6 times. Join with a sl st to the top of the first puff st.

Rnd 2: Work (puff st, ch 1, puff st, ch 1) into each ch 1 space around, join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

Rnd 3: *puff st, ch 1 in next st, (puff st, ch 1, puff st, ch 1) in next st* Rep from *to* around. Join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

Rnd 4: *puff st, ch 1 in next 2 sts, (puff st, ch 1, puff st, ch 1) in next st* Rep from *to* around. Join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

Rnd 5: *puff st, ch 1 in next 3 sts, (puff st, ch 1, puff st, ch 1) in next st* Rep from *to* around. Join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

If you would like to make a child sized hat, after finishing Rnd 5, skip ahead to Rnds 8-14.

Rnd 6: *puff st, ch 1 into next 4 sts, (puff st, ch 1, puff st, ch 1) in next st* Rep from *to* around. Join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

Rnd 7: *puff st, ch 1 into next 5 sts, (puff st, ch 1, puff st, ch 1) in next st* Rep from *to* around. Join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

If you would like your hat to be wider/puffier add another row or two of increases here. ( “into next 6 sts… into next 7 sts…” ect) Keep in mind that adding increase rows will also add to the size of the finished opening of the hat. You may have to add decrease rows to make the hat fit your head. (I will get into that later when you will need to know how to do them.)

Rnds 8-14 : *puff st, ch 1 into next st* repeat from *to* around. Join with a sl st to the top of first puff st.

If you would like your hat to be longer add another few rows here before you move onto the band of single crochets.

Rnd 15: Ch 1, sc in each ch 1 sp around and join with a sl st to the first sc in the row. (You want to make the stitches in this row a bit tight. Because of the wide space between them, they will want to pull a little loose. If you keep these stitches tight then you will have to do fewer/no decrease stitches to make the hat fit your head.)

Rnds 16-21 : Ch 1, sc in each st around and join with a sl st to the first sc in the row. After last row fasten off and weave in ends.

If you added increase rows to make your hat wider/puffier or if you need to make the opening of the hat smaller to fit your head or the head of a child, you will need to replace one or more of Rnds 16-21 with decrease rows.  

To do a decrease row, you will want to sc in each stitch around while evenly spacing 6 sets of (sc 2 tog) This is pretty much the opposite of the increase row. For example, instead of working *sc into the next 5 sts, 2 sc in the next st* you will work *sc into the next 5 sts, sc 2 tog*.

Sc 2 tog: insert hook into next st, yo and pull through st, insert hook into next st, yo and pull through st, yo and pull through both loops on hook. This basically turns two sts into one in the next row.

Don't worry if you need to add one or more single crochet decrease rows to the band. I think this hat also looks great with a wider band.

Flower: (Not necessary but it looks super cute for children hats.)
Ch 5, sl st into first ch to form a loop.

Ch 1, sc in loop, ch 3, *sc into loop, ch 3* repeat from *to* until you have 5 "Petal Loops" join with a sl st into first sc.

Work *sc, hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc* into each "petal loop" to form the petals of the flower, join with a sl st to the first sc, fasten off leaving a tail long enough to sew on flower.

Using yarn needle, place the flower on the band. I like to place the flower over "seam" in the band made by joining the ends of rows.