NOTE:

THIS IS ONLY A GUIDE AND MAY DIFFER FROM STITCH TO STITCH, PATTERN TO PATTERN, TO YARN USED, TO HOOK SIZE.

I get weekly inquiries from ladies asking for help to crochet beanies.

Well, here I have a few guidelines made up ​​and at the end, you can find a Free Newborn Beanie and the link to my Granny style beanie available in my Ravelry online shop.
To design your own beanie sounds very challenging, but once you get the basic concept on how to crochet a flat circle, and you have the basic head measurements, it is very simple.

But first I’m going to give you a few rules for the use of specific stitches. The stitch you are using will determine how accurate your measurements for different sizes will be.

Let’s start with measurements:

MEASUREMENTS

Head circumference:

Measurements are taken with a measuring tape horizontally around the forehead.

Make sure the tape measure is horizontally parallel to take correct measurements.

Beanie length:

The length of the beanie is measured from the crown to the bottom of the earlobe.

I’ve seen beanie patterns on the web that are simply to short. It looks ridiculous when a beanie stops just above the ear. Make your beanie rather too long than too short. It is more practical, especially for children who are still growing.

Next is the flat circle or crown of the beanie:

THE CROWN

How many times did you crochet a circles that simply refuses to lie flat?

It all depends on the kind of stitch you’re using and the amount of stitches worked into the foundation circle plus how you increase in each round.

What to remember?

1. The number of stitches needed depends upon the height of the stitch. The taller the stitch the more stitches required.
2. When you use the same stitch throughout your motif, the number of stitches to be added on subsequent rounds is the same for every round. That number is the same number of stitches used in round one.
3. Increases should be made one by one and spaced evenly as possible around.

See fig.1.1 below

Table 1.1 Type of stitch versus amount of stitches versus increase for each round.

The most effective stitch that I found for successive size increase for beanies is the hdc (half double crochet).

The dc (double crochet) can be very variable in increasing, but I adjust my increase in the last round by skipping every 2nd increasing stitch pair, so instead of 12 increased stitches in that round, I will have only 6.

Figure 1.1 Equal increase in Double Crochet.

The measurements for the CROWN will be as follows:

Head circumference minus 5cm = perimeter of flat circle.

Now for the sides:

SIDES

To keep it simple, keep the stitch type you use for the crown. Once pattern stitches are incorporated, the size of the beanie around the head will be influenced. Some stitch patterns gives a tighter tension on the item, others give a looser tension.

For the sides; stop increasing, and just keep up with the number of stitches that you ended with in the last increasing round of the crown.

Continue until you reached the required length.

Here is a table with basic measurements of head circumference, crown length and circumference of beanie.

Table 1.2 Beanie measurements guide in centimeters

Remember as I said at the beginning, this is just a guideline. You have to play with the yarn, hook size, type of stitch and stitch pattern, if you want to use it this way.

Play around, do not be afraid!

Here is a FREE PATTERN Newborn Beanie!

Here is my STYLE Granny Beanie in sizes Newborn to Adult !

I trust that this information is of value to you and that you will design your own beanie very soon.

Good luck and enjoy!

B

xxx