Yeehaw, Cotton Cowboy Hat

When I bought the crochet book, The Happy Hooker, this was one of the projects I always wanted to crochet. I always want to see at least two projects in a book before I want to buy it. Checking on Ravelry at some of the versions that had been completed made my decision easy. So armed with cotton yarn and advice from several Ravelers I started the project.

This was a a little hard to finish, I almost frogged it and used the cotton for dish cloths several times. But that could be due to the fact that I am primarily a knitter and not accustomed to reading crochet patterns. The cotton yarn was hard on my hands, and I can’t crochet very much due to RSI. I had to make myself finish this hat. It was most unpleasant crocheting with two strands of the cotton yarn I picked out. I would consider making the hat with another type of yarn.

Yarn: Peach n Cream 4, 2 oz balls, held double through out.

Hook: size G

Pattern: From the book Stitch N Bitch crochet: The Happy Hooker, Yeehaw Lady

Changes that I made:

Hat seems to be for a super large head, so I used a smaller crochet hook (G instead of K), hat turned out to be tall enough for a top hat, I shorted it to a reasonable height, the “cluster” stitch was not clear to me at all, I almost changed it to something (anything) else, but thanks to mikeyssmail on You Tube I mastered it, well it doesn't look exactly like the photo in the book, but close enough for me. I think this crochet cluster stitch tutorial by tjw1963 is probably the one I needed to make, but the cotton yarn stitches were so tight, I couldn't’ get it to work.

OK, so I finally sat down and said, I’m finishing this today! And like many things, in about an hour I was to the last row in the brim, (where the floral wire is inserted), it calls for a piece doubled, (the lower the number the thicker the wire), and to crochet over it. After doing this I realized I needed a firmer brim, the cotton yarn is very dense. I refered to Ravelry and one knitter said she used bailing wire for the same reason. I ended up taking my floral wire, which was 22 gauge (the thickest I could find in a long strand), and using 4 pieces of it held together. This seemed about right. Although it could have used thicker wire, if you have access to bailing wire, I would give it a try. Evidently bailing wire is the wire version of duct tape.

 

I got the hat done, but decided that I didn’t like my “holes” in it, I rummaged around and found some wooden beads, I ended up stringing them and placing them in the holes, by tacking them on each side.

 

Now this looks more like a cowboy hat should!

YeeHaw I’m ready to get my spurs on and  wrangle up some socks!