Here’s a fun little project that I’ve been tackling the last few days. The inspiration for this hat came this past Saturday from my table neighbor at the November Cleveland Craft Coalition Bazaar. She had a beautiful scarf crocheted in a variegated fall color way using a crochet stitch that I had never seen before called the crocodile stitch. Since I love learning new techniques, I decided that I had to teach myself how to make this stitch.
The process of learning the technique was fairly easy with the internet. All I had to do was google “crochet crocodile stitch” and I got tons of results. I started with learning the basics from this video on YouTube. After I learned the basics of the stitch I was ready to put it to use.
Though I think a scarf is a great application for this highly textured stitch, I wanted to try a hat, which is how I found this free crocodile stitch hat pattern. What’s interesting about this pattern is that it’s worked from the bottom up, which is opposite from the way I am used to crocheting. Along with becoming very familiar with the crocodile stitch by making this hat, I also needed to learn how to make a half double crochet foundation row, for which I used this YouTube video. Unlike a regular chain stitch foundation row, the half double one allows for much more stretch.
As soon as I saw the pattern online I knew right away that I wanted to make my hat look like an artichoke. I mean this stitch just screams ARTICHOKE to me! Luckily, I had nearly an entire skein of Caron Simply Soft yarn in Dark Sage from the shamrock garland I made last March.
It was very easy to adapt the before-mentioned pattern to look more artichoke-like. All I needed to do was create a stem on top to complete the look. Easy!
Have you made something recently that utilizes a new technique? I’d love to hear about it, or better yet see it! You can post a photo of a finished project using a new technique that you learned on the zween facebook page, or just tell me the story of a project in the comments below.
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I like it! The texture and color go great and it looks really warm & cozy 🙂
I love this! My father has been asking for a hat like rocker Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top wars, and I think this is a do-able alternative! (he wears a pretty tricky hat- the only way I’ve found to make it is with a lot of i-cording, felting, cutting, and sewing hundreds of tiny felted pieces onto a hat! Yikes!) Thanks for sharing!
Hi, that is a really beatiful hat! It’s possible to buy one?
I’m relatively new to crochet, but I’ve just finished a baby blanket of which I’m pretty proud. It’s made of mostly double crochets but I created the pattern. So now I’m excited to try something a little more complex. Might you be able to break down for me how you created the stem on this hat? I have almost a pound of fern colored yarn and my Valentine loves artichokes! So this couldn’t be more perfect!
It was a long time ago that I made the hat and of course I didn’t write down the pattern, but it is simple enough. When I got to that part I did single crochet in the round (spiral)without decreasing. Once I reached a desirable height I used another piece of yarn and made a disk to “cap it off” then just sewed to two pieces together. I hope that helps!
Do you make and sell the artichkoe hats? If so I would like to buy one
Thank you for your interest Lanette, and to answer your question, yes, I do! I already sold the one that this post was written about, but I have two more in a slightly different green color available. If you are interested please send me a private conversation via my Etsy shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/zween) as I sell through there. I can make a reserved listing for you if you decide that you would like to purchase one. Here is the link to my previously sold artichoke hat:
https://www.etsy.com/transaction/176831434?