Allison: I'm Allison Whitlock and I'm with an online crochet group today, they're called
Next Generation, and they're from all around the country connected mostly by the
internet. But today is the first time that you guys are really meeting in person
which is amazing.
Pam: We were brought together by our love for crochet.
Allison: Now this project that we're making is one of Pam’s design, this fantastic cowboy
hat. Is this a difficult project?
Pam: Well, there's some shaping with the hat. And the sea grass is not your
conventional material that you use for crochets. So there's some tricks, but it’s a
fun project.
Allison: Okay, let's try it on and see how it looks. Very, very cool. I think it’s so much fun.
Well, because it is a little bit tricky, we're going to rate it I for intermediate.
For this project you’ll need a size P crochet hook and a coil of sea grass. Now
Pam, sea grass is a really unusual fiber. It’s not something you're going to be able
to work into the yarn sort of picco.
Pam: Yes, it’s a specialty fiber that’s very unconventional.
Allison: So what is it like to crochet with it?
Pam: It is pretty hard. But the end product is so worth it.
Allison: Now this is how it comes, you have a coil here. This is how you buy it, you can
purchase it online.
Pam: Correct, that’s correct.
Allison: Why do you have it in the basket?
Pam: The coil comes in secure, once you snip that, the coil starts to separate. So if you
have something to contain it in, then it doesn't get all mess up. And you can just
pull right from the middle.
Allison: And as with all crochet, we're starting with the chain stitch. Tell me how many we
need?
Pam: We need 13 chain stitches for the top of the hat.
Allison: So that’s right along here where we start. And we’ll be working around and
around and out to the brim.
With a chain or 13, it is now time to start working rows around the chain.
Pam: Yes, and what we're going to do is in the second chain from the hook, we're going
to do a single crochet back down the chain. I'm going to insert my hook, pull the
sea grass through. And sometimes you have to stop and stretch that out so you get
a real good stitch. And then I'm going to yarn over, or sea grass over, pull
through.
Allison: So it’s just one single crochet into each chain on one side of the chain.
Pam: That’s correct.
Allison: And continue all the way down to the end of the chain.
Now Amy, have you ever worked with sea grass?
Amy: I haven't worked with sea grass before, but I'm amazed at how flexible it winds up
being.
Allison: From something so stiff.
Amy: Right. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
Pam: Now you can see I've gone all the way down the chain with a single crochet in the
back loop. And I've come around and I'm going to increase in the corner there.
Allison: And you’ve increased in this side as well so when you get down to the end of
your chain, you’ll increase once at the corner to turn the corner. Single crochet all
the way up, and now we're going to see that increase again.
Pam: So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take that loop and I'm going to do a two
single crochets and one stitch. And that will be our corner increase.
Allison: Now let's look at where you are now. And we've now completed three rows all the
way around. So you can see, if we count those ridges, there's our first row, our
second row, and our third row. So now is the time to start going down the hat?
Pam: Yes, we've completed the top, this is the top. Now we're going to do the sides.
And we're going to continue with our back loop single crochet, but we're going to
omit the increases. So it’s going to go all the way around, and again we're
working with no seams. So we just do a continuous loop all the way around.
Allison: Just like a spiral.
Pam: And we're going to get our sides.
Allison: So now that we have the sides complete. Now it’s starting to really look like a hat,
you can start to increase to come out with the brim.
Pam: That’s correct. What we're going to do is we're continuing in our back loops, but
I'm going to increase every other stitch.
Allison: All the way around?
Pam: All the way around.
Allison: Okay. So Drew, now that you’ve seen the sea grass, is your designers mind
working? You see all the things you could work with it?
Drew: Absolutely, I think I'm going to crochet myself a couch.
Allison: And this one looks quite feminine because we have the bow in the back. What
would you do to make it more masculine?
Drew: I think if we added a leather band. Maybe black it, so it looks more like a cowboy
hat.
Allison: Sort of peeking down at the front?
Drew: Yeah.
Allison: And Pam, how many rows do you increase?
Pam: There's two rows of increases, and that is a single crochet and then an increase.
And that’s repeated for two rows.
Allison: Okay, and then once you’ve completed those two rows, you’ll then work single crochet
rows, just plain old single crochet. One in each stitch, and you do that for two
rows. And that will start to flip the hat up in the opposite direction. Which just
gives it a nice brim. I love this. I think it looks great.