In this post I will be talking about transforming the only crochet hat in the group of completed samples I received for the Stitching Experiments Project.
The original piece is worked in the round in a simple double crochet pattern for the main body and single crochet rounds for the brim. The hat seems to be worked from the top down with a bulky weight yarn in a merino, alpaca and polyamide blend. The brim is also adorned with a white crocheted flower.
Before embarking on any modifications, I first went into the leftovers pile and searched for yarns that could work well together with the original yarn. I checked for thickness, fuzziness and color coordination. I chose several balls of yarn, very different to each other. I then sat with the yarn and the hat and started playing.
I worked basic embroidery stitches on various locations on the body of the hat (in vertical and horizontal directions). After several tries, I realized I didn’t like any of them, so I removed them all. I also had to reject the yarns I worked them with. They were too thin and all the stitches were getting lost between the bulky crochet stitches. I was trying mostly abstract, geometric lines and not embroidering objects such as flowers, leaves etc. Maybe those would have been more visible, but this was not the style I was going for anyway.
Then, a moment of revelation! I tried something unexpected: I took a bulky yarn that looks like a thick ribbon tape and instead of working embroidery stitches with it, I started weaving it, in and out, between the double crochet stitches. I did two rounds in the hat as an initial example going all the way around in a spiral, without breaking the yarn. When those two rounds were complete, I stopped and examined the hat. I really liked the effect and how the multi-color ribbon tape yarn was coordinating with the pale blue color of the hat.
With the first attempt as a guide, I un-weaved the two rounds and started afresh from the top of the hat. I decided to weave in the yarn every other round only. I measured approximately how much yarn I needed per round (around 3 times the total circumference) and cut the ribbon tape yarn in strips. Then, I started weaving in the round from the top. I made sure that the weave was very loose, forming little bumps. I didn’t want the weaving to constrict the hat and reduce it’s elasticity. I wanted the finished yarn “stripes” to stretch together with the hat.
Given this looseness though, it would be easy for the yarn to unravel if the ends are not secured properly. Each round had two loose ends (beginning and end of round), which I tied together with a couple of secure knots, before weaving in the ends.
Finally, I removed the white crochet flower because it didn’t fit with the look of the hat anymore.
For this hat I spent more time in the trial and error phase, rather than working on the actual modification. But I had lot’s of fun working on this piece, doing something completely different, doing some super basic weaving! I also like the result, the symmetry and the color changes. What do you think of this makeover?
The Crochet Ribbon Hat is now available for purchase in my e-shop. 🙂
