Baby Beanies

These little hats have been a joy to make, and knock up very, very quickly. Hats and beanies I have made in the past have been done 'on the round' which are great in themselves, but sometimes I crave thick, chunky, ribbed knitted hats and I wondered if I could recreate the look with crochet.

Enter the half double crochet!! this beanie has been crocheted as a flat rectangle, slip stitched together into a tube and then decreased at the top to close the tube. I have made this pattern for a new born size, but it is completely adaptable, add more stitches to increase the depth of the hat, add more rows to increase the circumference.

This pattern is for the 0-3 month size only. 5.5mm hook & WW (chunky)yarn.
With red yarn, CH 22.
Row 1: HDC in 3rd ch from hook and each st across, ch 2, turn. (20 HDC)
Row 2: HDC in each st across, ch 2, turn (20 hdc)
Row 3 - 25: Repeat row 2.
Join work end-to-end and Slip Stitch up the side. Fasten off and weave in the ends. Turn right side out.

With green yarn, join with SC to top of hat next to the seam. Work SC's around the top but do not join.
Work SC2TOG continuously around the top of the hat until there are 4-5 STS remaining.
For stalk make 1 SC in each ST around, for approx 5 rounds until the stem is the height you want. Fasten off and poke the string down into the hat.

For the pom-pom hat, without the stalk, I simply joined on the same colour yarn at the top of the tube, (as with the berry) and continued to decrease until the hole was filled - I do wonder if this could be done a bit neater by just threading yarn around the top edge of the tube and pulling tight to join?

**UPDATE** I have just made another plain beanie (without berry stalk) and have found it to be much quicker and neater, if once you have created the 'tube' you simply make a running stitch with matching yarn around the top and then pull tight to close.