My second ever crochet project was a boy beanie for my boyfriend, Andy. He has a very large head (you know what they say… wait a minute, what do they say??) and finds it very hard to get hats that fit!

This particular pattern, by Laura Killoran, is again from The Happy Hooker and is actually supposed to fit a 20″ head (stretching up to 24″ max). But, my boyfriend has a 25½” head! So firstly, I started out with a 6mm hook, instead of 5.5mm, so that it would be a little bigger. Plus, I thought that as this is only my second project so my tension is still reasonably loose, which will make it bigger again. That sorts out the size.

I was hoping to find a camouflage yarn but although my local wool shop has quite a large selection, I quickly realised that this was something specialist that I might have to hunt over the net for. I decided to settle for a similar multi-dye wool in camouflage colours. I wasn’t keen on the red stripes that are shown in the pattern and decided to go for a chocolate brown, which I intended for another pattern (more later ), but that I could spare a little of for Andy.

It took so little time, it was unbelievable! I had it finished according to the pattern one evening TV session. So simple and great for practicing those double crochet stitches!

I tried it on myself, as Andy wasn’t around and it seemed short to me. More like a skull cap than a beanie. So I undid the last row of single crochets and kept adding more rows and stripes of brown. When I had added enough to make the beanie too big for me I added an extra row for luck and re-did the single crochets to finish off. Voila! The finished product you see above.

The pattern for this boy beanie is now, in fact, available for free from All Free Crafts.

And, this is how it looks on me –>

Here’s some more people who’ve made the boy beanie: