16 Jan 2022

Finally finished off the hat with crochet cord tied/sewn down into a bow on top (as hinted at in the original photo) and a pair of dangling pompoms, tacked down to the brim in an attempt to prevent the baby’s pulling them off and eating them.
The finished circumference of the hat is worryingly small, despite having changed up the size of everything - only about 15” after all once the brim was turned. :-(

Note that there appears to be an error in the pattern which means you need to do an extra half-decrease row on round 14 in order to reduce to the stated 84 stitches. (Decrease four times by 9 sts/row as written, i.e. ‘every twelfth stitch’, which takes you down to 90 sts, then do an extra row where you skip every third decrease, reducing by only 6sts overall.)

08 Jan 2022

I can’t work out what effect ‘turn hat and work 2 rows d.c. with inside facing towards you’ is supposed to have; when I did it, there was literally no difference visible between the inside-out rows and the outside-in ones (see close-up photo). I eventually tried unpicking the whole thing, mohair and all, and starting again from this point, working the first ‘turn-up’ row through the back loops only in the hopes of creating a definite fold at this point. I had to resort to a 2mm hook in order to work d.c. through the centres of the chain stitches in the contrast pattern section, as the 5mm hook is far too thick and blunt.

Note to self: I also need to work the edging as (dc, 2ch) instead of (dc,ch), or the ‘holes’ simply don’t show up when using wool this thick :-(

26 Dec 2021

Original pattern tells you to use 4ply Super Fingering and a “fine Crochet Hook”.
I tried with modern 4ply and a 2mm hook, and got a doll- sized result. After a lot of experimentation, I am trying double knitting and a fat 5mm hook, to produce something with a brim 18-19” in circumference rather than 14”…