Whichever way you decide to create your hat either by crocheting or knitting, choosing the best yarn for a beautiful work is essential. Crochet hats are quite popular with so many crocheters having several creativities. They are fast and easy to work up even after a just concluding huge project.
Cotton yarn is good for hats. However, it only works best for summer hats as it doesn’t have the warmth texture, or elasticity required to make a winter hat.
It is a natural fiber and its breathable and airflow properties make it best for use in warmer months. The cotton blend yarn mixed with other fibers is also a great choice when knitting hats. The cotton yarn is breathable, airy, absorbs moisture, is washable, and is perfect for the warmer season. It also has the strength to maintain the shape of the bucket hat and is paired with tighter stitches and a small hook.
What Cotton Yarn Weight Should I Choose?
Cotton yarn is an inelastic yarn that for projects like hats, it finds it difficult to maintain its shape and in such cases, it is best to go for the thick yarn weights from #6 or #7, the superbulky or jumbo yarn weights.
How Do I Knit Hats Using Cotton Yarn?
The cotton yarn can be worked to create several types of hats such as bucket hats, beanies, sun hats, and all which sometimes have a brim at the edge to help shield your face from the sun. The catchy part? You can work these hats into any design or pattern, colors (one solid color or several colors to create a hat with stripes), or just customize them your own way.
Crocheting a hat is a great project idea for all crocheters and here, I bring to you the steps to guide you further with your cotton yarn choice, let’s get started:
Step 1: Hat Designing
To knit your hat, there are 3 compulsory things to put in the frontline before the knitting process. These are the yarn choice, the measurement, and the hook size.
– Choose The Yarn
The first thing is to choose the type of cotton yarn you desire (check online or go to yarn stores to choose). There are several cotton yarns made by different companies and in different colors and weight sizes.
– Measure The Hat Size
Before you start, you should measure out the size of your hat and determine how to make it whether small or big. To measure your hat size, there are two methods to use: use the general measurement guidelines or take the measurement of the head to be more accurate in the fitness.
Any of these two methods is best but it is likely impossible to get the exact fitness measurement if the hast is a gift. You must measure the head in this manner: circumference (from the forehead to the back of the head) and the hat height (from the ear to the top of the head) but there are basic standard average measurements, they are:
| User | Circumference | Height |
| For Premature (Preemie) | 12 inches | 4.25 inches |
| For Newborn | 14 inches | 5 inches |
| For Baby of 6 months+ | 16 inches | 6 inches |
| Child/Youth | 20 inches | 7.25 inches |
| Adult | 22 inches | 8.5 inches |
| Extra Adult | 24 inches | 9.25 inches |
– Choose Your Hook Size
Your choice of hook size is determined by the size of the yarn choice. If you’re using a 4-ply yarn, your hook required is an H/8 aluminum-made hook size. This hook size is a great choice for crocheters as it works with various yarn sizes and is very comfortable to hold while knitting. Ensure that your hook is held in the right way. There are two ways of holding the hook:
- The pencil hold: here, you hold the hook in your hand like you’re going to write with it.
- The knife hold: you get to hold your hook like you hold a knife to cut with it.
Step 2: The Base Chain
The base chain is known as the foundation chain or first stitches. This is the first step to knitting your hat. It involves four steps:
– Make A Slipknot
A slipknot or a running knot is a stopper made by pulling and tying an overhand knot from the starting point of your work. It helps to hold the needle and yarn together while crocheting. After making the slipknot, then tie. To tie the slipknot, do the following:
- Wrap around your index finger and under your middle finger the tail of the yarn and hang.
- Behind the first loop made, the yarn should be wrapped back over the top of your index finger.
- From the center of the yarn, pull a loop and pull through the center of the loop wrapped around your finger.
- Then, the loop should be placed on the hook with the yarn tail pulled to tighten the knot.
– Knit The Foundation Chain
The first row of the chain stitches is called the foundation chain. For a hat, the foundation chain is not usually long, just about 5 or 6 stitches to start with. Hold the tail end of your worked slipknot with the crochet hook pushed forward to allow enough space at the end.
Then, wrap the yarn once around the end of the hook and pull through the initial slipknot backward. This makes the first stitch complete, kindly repeat this process again to complete the foundation chain.
– Make A Slip Stitch
The slipstitch is worked to join the end of the first chain. This is used to finish your foundation chain by making a loop to hook it back. Insert the hook end through the center of the first stitch made and do the usual single stitch.
– Get Your Starting Point
It is compulsory to keep track of your stitches while crocheting and this is done by knowing where your row started. There are two ways to mark the starting point of your work:
- In the second row, tie a piece of string around the first stitch.
- Insert a bobby pin over the first stitch.
Each time you get back to the marked part of every row, it means that you have completed a row of stitches.
Step 3: Build Your Base Chain
After marking the base chain, the process advances into completing your work, building the base chain into a hat. This is pretty easy to do by following the steps below:
– Round Crocheting
The first building is to crochet in the round which means crocheting a small circle which is the base of the hat at the top. After the hook is inserted and pulled through, the second row is created adjacent to the first chain in a spiral form. As you continue, make sure it is done in a circle form. Watch out not to alter the direction.
– Make Your Second Row
The second row is made by working a double stitch. This will help attach all the rows of stitches to the spiral in the center of your work to prevent several loose rows in the end. To create a double stitch, wrap around your crochet hook a single loop. Insert the hook and pull through the formed loop into the chain that is next or under it attached to your spiral to give two loops on your hook.
Then, to finish this, knit a regular stitch by wrapping the yarn around the crochet hook and pulling through the two loops on your hook to have just one loop left on your hook having completed a double stitch.
– Alter The Work Pattern
After the base round is completed, alter the stitch pattern a little to increase the body of your work. For stitches in each row, follow this process:
Start with a double stitch – then do a single stitch – a double stitch again – a single stitch and continue like that until each row is completed.
– Count Your Stitches
The first rows of about 3 or 5 are easy but as you move further, you need to keep track of your stitches. For a double stitch, it is counted as 2 stitches, and for a single stitch, it is counted as 1 stitch. To count, it goes like this:
- If your first row is 5 stitches, the second row is 10 stitches, the third is 30 stitches, the fourth is 45 stitches, the fifth row is 60 stitches, the sixth is 75 stitches, the seventh row is 90 stitches, and it continues like that.
– Finish Up
After the seventh row, you should continue with single stitches. To finish up the work, you’ll knit extra rows of single stitches for additional hat length instead of making it wider. At the desired circumference measurement, start the rows of extra stitches.
To complete, tie a slipknot at the tail end and weave it back into the hat with your crochet hook to hide it. Then Leave about 5 inches of yarn and weave through the edge inside the hat using an embroidery needle. After, tie off the secured end.
Then, the hat is ready for use or to be packaged as a gift!
Conclusion
Using cotton yarn involves being creative regardless of its properties, you can create anything and confidently make yourself look good but do not expect that cotton yarn to work like wool yarn.
The best hat made with cotton yarn is the summer hat knitted into several hat types, designs, and patterns. The summer hats do not necessarily need to be warm and in this article, you got the best step process to knit a hat using cotton yarn.