crochet: hat and scarf

This pink-and-lilac hat and scarf set is for a cute little 4-yr old girl who happens to be the precious little daughter of my friend from high school days.

I liked the crochet stitch on the scarf, I liked the texture and beauty it projected. I have a small crochet book of textured stitches like bobbles, popcorn, seed stitch and so forth... and I picked a stitch from this book which appears complex but is in fact quite simple to do.

The hat has a bit of stretch built into it so it can be used for a few years as the child grows. I added some ribbing to the hat edge as well. The hat pattern is sort of made-up in the sense that I have worked on several hat patterns and I just combined a few ideas from a couple of free patterns I had come across.

Now, hats can be either made from crown to the forehead edge, or the other way. Some of the baby hats I prefer to start at the crown and increase in rounds till I feel it might fit an infant's head. But for little girls and adults, I try to start with a ribbing at the forehead edge and work up to the crown.