Holiday Inspired Crochet Part 1 - Summer Hat

Although Autumn is creeping in here in the UK, somewhere, on this beautiful planet, someone will be enjoying Summer, so I would like to share my holiday make with you, in case you would like to make a Summer Hat too. I had full intentions of making this project before my holiday, as, it is fair to say, a sun hat is a highly useful item when you are off to sunnier climes. Unfortunately, time ran away, so I decided to take this project on holiday with me instead. 

My plan was to start the hat on the plane, I had all I needed packed in a zip lock bag, including my special yarn cutter, but guess what? I was unable to take my crochet hook on the plane! There seems to be an inconsistent rule to crochet hooks on planes, as I know many people who have crocheted on flights before. So I had to wait till I was on holiday before I could start my hat.

I selected the pattern Mara from the Garnstudio DROPS Design website.

The pattern recommends using 100g of DROPS Bomull-Lin (colour no 5, brown) or 100g DROPS Paris (colour no 26, dark beige). I chose DROPS Bomull-Lin, colour no 03, light beige.

The pattern starts with a flat circle. I instantly fell in love with Bomull Lin as soon as I started to use it. Just look how it shimmers in the sunshine! This yarn is a mix of linen and cotton, making it strong and durable. It is perfect for hats, bags and baskets. Although, there are plenty of people that use it to make garments too. It may be odd to point out here how great it smells, but I always (perhaps oddly?) smell yarn and this one is really lovely!

Next there is a really pretty section of the hat, which forms the sides. This was fun and quick to do, but after a few rounds I realised that I had made a mistake early on and had to frog it right back to the beginning of this section.

Finally the brim. I began this project with a 4.5 mm hook (as advised by the pattern), but after 4 rounds of the brim I noticed that I was getting short of yarn and that the brim was quite wavy. I crochet loosely and it was clear by the wave in the brim and the lack of yarn to finish that my tension was way too loose. I decided to pull back the brim section and re-crochet it with a 4mm hook. The result was a less wavy hat brim, however I did not have enough yarn to complete the number of rounds outlined in the pattern, so my hat only has five rounds in the brim, rather than six. I finished the edge with a slip stitch all the way round to help stiffen the rim.

If I was going to make this hat again (I have my eyes on the dark blue Bomull Lin next!) I would use a size 4 mm hook from the start and try to crochet a little tighter to improve my tension. This aside, I am delighted with my hat and I managed to finish it the day before coming home!