I Learn By Doing - QueerJoe Crochet Thermal Stitch Hat 01-23-23 01

I Learn By Doing

Taking a workshop, reading a book, watching a YouTube video. None of those help as much as doing. I learn by doing.

The Best Method for Me – I Learn By Doing

In the last blog entry, I mentioned I was totally distracted by a new crochet hat design.

The hat uses a crochet stitch called Thermal Stitch and there are tons of patterns, tutorials and videos about it.

First, I taught myself how to crochet the stitch. It’s really quite a simple stitch. I tried it out and I could easily execute the stitch. But to make a hat, I needed to do thermal stitch in-the-round. So I found a tutorial on that. In fact, I found a YouTube tutorial on making the hat I was hoping to make.

But I realized my crochet skills weren’t quite good enough. I couldn’t really read my stitches well enough to start with 120 stitches. I kept getting my base chain twisted. After three attempts, I was going to call it quits. But fortunately, the guy who originally posted photos of the hat made a useful comment. He said he hated the on-line patterns and crocheted his top-down. He started with magic loop and 8 single crochets. That I could manage!

I taught myself magic loop. Then I taught myself thermal stitch increases. In no time I had the top of my hat.

I quickly learned that I don’t really know how to shape a dome in crochet. Getting the shaping uniform without creating a ruffle wasn’t as simple as I expected. So this process took a few attempts and quite a bit of ripping out. But I finally got it.

The last piece of information was also provided by the original poster on Facebook. He mentioned that he stopped shaping when the top of his hat was a little less than 7″. I was planning on using the number of stitches in the video tutorial for the bottom-up hat. I ended up using a LOT fewer stitches. She uses 120 sts, I ended up using 80 (and I was using a smaller hook than she uses…her hat must be big).

Current Crocheting

Overall, I learned from posts and comments on social media. Also, from google searches and YouTube videos. But mostly I learned from trial and error.

I love how the hat came out. The waffled fabric is very much like the fabric used by thermal underwear.

Crochet Thermal Stitch Hat 01-23-23 05

The fabric is squishy, dense and warm.

It’s one of the few hats I’ve made that looks better on my head than it does on the mannequin head.

I used two fingering weight yarns (the main yarn is Rimu by Zealana – a merino/possum blend) and a 4 mm hook (US F).

I will definitely be trying out this hat again.

8 comments on “I Learn By Doing

  1. Thermal underwear? You people in the East have all the fun. It’s a nice hat ☺️. Good job with the trial and error.

  2. Great looking hat. You certainly thrive with both knit and crochet.
    As I am always striving for warmth with hats and mittens, I think I’ll have to explore this stitch.
    Best wishes for more January!

  3. Thanks, Joe! You said there’s a “magic loop” in crochet, so I went to YouTube, found a tutorial and now know what it is and where to look when I want to use it for something. You’re always so helpful. ♥

  4. Great hat! This how I often learn new techniques as well. In fact, I’ve taken exactly 1 knitting and 1 crochet class, a few hours each, and have learned most everything else from Youtube. I find a great sense of satisfaction conquering a new skill on my own in this way. Great job!

  5. I hope you wrote down what you did. I’ll figure something out by trial and error, not write it down, and have to figure it all out again next time I try it. At least I have the confidence of the prior experience, I guess. That’s a great hat!

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