Crocheters often develop an affection for a particular pattern, and that pattern in turn can become a “go to” project for a crocheter during a specific season of the year. That thing that you make when you want an outcome that comes as close to “knowable” as an outcome can, and Beth Hall’s Crochet Seafarer’s Cap is exactly that for me when early fall comes.
The Seafarer’s Cap is a project that does not take a huge amount of time or yarn but can also not be rushed.
There are a lot of slip stitches worked through the back loop of the slip stitch in the previous row, creating a very stretchy yet sturdy brim that helps keep the hat firm only on one’s head, and today, I finished my first one of the season.
Using a 5.5 mm hook and some Red Heart With Love (in what seems to be the now discontinued color “caramel”), I finished crocheting the hat yesterday, and today, I took bent-tipped yarn needle to long (very long) end and joined one edge of the hat to the other, weaved in the ends, trimmed them, and voila! I had a hat, ready to wear:
This hat, however, is not intended to be mine. It is intended to be one element of a Christmas gift for my two elderly cousins and the other people who live in the board and care where my cousins live — a board and care that provides services to those with mental health issues that preclude those who suffer from them from being able to fully care for themselves.
But having said that, every time I finish a seafarer’s cap, I slip it on. I love the snug brim and how warm the hat keeps my head on a crisp autumn afternoon or a cold winter morning, and after I had finished all of the crochet work of this year’s first seafarer’s cap, I got out a 5.0 mm hook and some Red Heart Super Saver grape fizz so that I could try my “go to” hat pattern in my “go to” yarn color.
Here is how it looks so far:
Mindful that it will be time to celebrate Christmas with my cousins and their housemates before I know it, I also took a 5.5 mm hook to a skein of Red Heart Super Saver blue suede and got a start on another hat for this year’s holiday festivities:
I am incredibly thankful for the people who run the board and care where my cousins live. They do an amazing job of making my cousins’ lives complete and filled with the ordinary celebrations and joys that are so often missing from the lives of those with mental illness, and I am also thankful to Beth Hall for sharing her wonderful pattern as she has so that I can both experience and share the joy that is a crochet seafarer’s cap.
They’re beautiful and I know they will be appreciated all winter.
I also like this hat. Last year I started to crochet one, but a some point I realized that I could not crochet this hat ‘a vue’; I needed to count the stitches, because I had lost some on the way. Since we had a mild winter in the Netherlands last year there was no need to finish the hat. Two weeks ago I decided to frog what I had and to start again. Now I use stitch markers and I did not loose any stitches! Great pattern.