Once upon a time, in a land far, far from Arendelle, I created a post on my old site that had the instructions for making an Elsa hat. One of the hats featured in today’s 31 Days of Halloween post, actually (Day 12). Even though I am surprised to see that my WordPress site is still live, I’m reposting the instructions here as that site will be coming down in the near future.
Originally posted 01/11/2015:
I’ve always wanted to knit. And I’ve tried, I really have, the problem is with my gauging, it gets tighter and tighter and tighter…until I can no longer get the knitting needle into any of my stitches. So I gave up and this last year decided to try crochet when one of my co-workers offered to teach a group of us. What do you know? It worked and I love it! Of course I still sort of suck at reading patterns and half the time I change them anyway, but I’ve actually made crocheted items that don’t just look like a lump of yarn. The image that comes to mind is of Hermione’s knitted hats for the house elves (If you don’t get the reference, you haven’t read nearly enough Harry Potter :-)).
As part of my “keep Christmas 2014 stress free” campaign, I sat myself down to think about what I could do to help me stay stress free this year. One of my ideas was to start shopping early to avoid the crowds. I also had enough time to really think about what I wanted to do for my nieces and nephews since they are the only other family members we buy gifts for. I decided that this year I was going to make their gifts since I not only had given myself time, but also because that was the most stress free option; making something from the heart vs. standing in the toy store trying to figure out what to buy and then hoping it wasn’t something that they either already had or were getting.
I was looking on Pinterest for inspiration and saw the most amazing Anna and Elsa hats. They were crocheted with the hair made from yarn hanging down out of the hats. I knew that I was more than up to that challenge so I decide that my nieces were getting Elsa and Anna hats for Christmas (I also made reversible capelets that went with the hats, but never got any good pictures). This post is about creating the Elsa hat. What you’ll need:
1 skein white yarn – I used more of a winter white, but in the end it still just looked white so…
Yellow yarn (tiara) – you won’t need a lot, I’ve just been using what I have on hand.
Blue thread (optional) – I use Madera #1094, it’s a shade of turquoise that matches Elsa’s dress.
Crochet hook of your choice – I’ve been using a size I.
I’m not going to post a hat pattern in this post; I don’t actually follow a written pattern and I make the hats differently every time, so I suggest using your favorite hat pattern, mine is very simple and is constructed from almost all double crochet stitches. When I get close to completing the hat (about 1 inch or two rows of double crochet left), I add the thread to my stitches to give it a little pop of color. To do this, I slip stitch the thread in at the beginning of the row and then crochet my stitches with both yarn and thread together; it does take a bit of practice to catch the thread at the same time as the yarn, but gets easier with practice.
Once your hat is done, make the tiara using the yellow yarn. This is a pattern I created, so I’m going to include it exactly as I make it, if you have trouble with it, please let me know.
Row 1 – Ch 26, turn
Row 2 – dc 26, turn
Row 3 – Sl st 4, hdc 18, sl st 4, fasten off
Row 4 – sl st onto 1st hdc in row 3, **ch 4, sk 1, dc**, repeat between ** 7x, ch 4, sk 1, sl st turn
Row 5 – work 4 dc’s around first 4 chain stitches, dc at end of chain, repeat for each chain, instead of dc at end, sl st, turn
Row 6 – sl st 14, hdc 12, turn
Row 7 – hdc 12, turn
Row 8 – ch 2, hdc 10, turn
Row 9 – sl st 5, create bauble: ch 2, yo, sl st onto same stitch, yo, pull through (should have 3 loops on hook), yo, pull through 2, repeat to get 4 loops on hook & pull through all. Repeat bauble steps again in same st, ch 1, sl st in same st & continue sl st through each st all the way down. Fasten off.
Center the tiara on the front on the hat, lining up the bottom of the tiara with the top of the row that contains the yarn and thread. I fasten the tiara to the hat using a slip stitch through row 2 of the tiara.
Once attached, the tiara should stand up on its own when being worn, but I like to reinforce it a bit more by tacking each side to the hat along the curve of the tiara.
To create Elsa’s braid, cut 45 pieces of white yarn, each 40″ long.
String 3 pieces of yarn through a large eyed needle. Turn the hat inside out and pull the three strands of yarn through the back of the dc immediately next to the edge of the tiara. Repeat for the next 14 stitches moving towards the back of the hat.
Once all of the stands are in place and even, braid the yarn so that it comes over the shoulder and doesn’t just hang straight down. Tie off bottom of braid with a piece of white yarn.
Here is L modeling her Elsa hat.
