If you have been following my blogs you know I’ve been a crocheting fool trying to get down a hat pattern that will really fit a newborn baby instead of one that the baby will have to grow into.
In my family babies are 6lbs to 7 1/2 lbs and I want to be able to make hats as shower gifts that the babies can wear right away.
Earlier this week I finally (thought) I came up with a hat that would work, and I guess, for people having babies that are 8, 9 or omgosh 10 pounds but the more I think about it that is more of a 0-3 month size. Leave it to me to continue over-thinking and re-doing ::big sigh::
Here are the comparisons
 This hat measures just under 13 1/2" so it will fit a 13 1/2"-15 1/2" head or 0-3 months Click the pic for the pattern |
 This hat measures approx 12 1/3" If you have a small baby this will be a good newborn hat. Click the pic for the pattern |
And here is what I used as a guide.
This is the hat the nurses put on Vee when she was born. Gosh, I can’t believe she ever wore this. Her head is bigger than mine now. (Yes I have drove my family insane since taking up knitting and crocheting by measuring their heads, measuring the width across their face, behind their ears, even from their crown to the bottom of their earlobes. It’s to the point I fear, they will start running when they see my yellow measuring tape in hand 
)
Anyway back to the hat. This is the hat she wore the day she was born.
This is it in comparison to the blue trimmed, 40 stitch hat located here
The double crochet hat is slightly larger on each side
The double crochet hat is slightly larger on each side. Now it may only be a half inch or so but when you are talking about a little noodle that’s only 13 1/2 inches every cm is going to make a difference.
Now this hat, the hat trimmed in pink is pretty much identical in size as shown below
This hat measures right around 12 1/4″ to 12 1/3″. That is 36 stitches in double crochet with my J hook (6.5 mm) which, if you keep up with my blog, will know that is the size hook I prefer as smaller ones make my hands ache.
To arrive at 36 stitches your last row of increases needs to be done a bit differently as you will be adding only 6 stitches to your 30 opposed to 10 to your 30. Here is how I did it.
Round 3 – *2 dc in next stitch, 1 dc in next 5 stitches* repeat around (36 stitches total)
That way you are adding an extra dc at the beginning and then on every 6th stitch.
Now I know most of the directions for increases I have seen have you start out with your regular stitches and increase every 10th, 6th, 8th, whatever but I like to do the increase in the first stitch. To me it just makes more sense and I don’t have to worry about forgetting one. You’re working with double crochet in rounds so it’s pretty basic–get your specified number of increases in per round. If you prefer to do it in a different order than me I am sure your hat will turn out fine as long as you are doing your increases evenly around the hat.
The full pattern for the newborn hat is here. Keep in mind, the ears and the nose don’t have to be used and neither do the earflaps if you just want a beanie hat.
