Snow Day Slouch

This holiday season I made my annual trek to lands far and cold. It was a long journey, filled with lots and lots and lots of snow. That might have been because I was seeking out the fresh powder for nefarious purposes (read: skiing), but regardless, there was a lot of it. For most of the trip I was working on my sister-in-law's Christmas present (a gift I've yet to actually finish..) and the continuous stockinette stitch was grating on my patience. My mother crochets more than knits and on one particularly snowy day when we decided to treat ourselves snowed in, I decided I would take a break from my stockinette, do some ribbing and.. crochet! Dun dun dun.

Enter the Snow Day Slouch.

Techniques You'll Need:
- Crochet in the round (spiral)
- Knitting in the round
- Knit stitch
- Purl stitch
- half-double crochet stitch (hdc)
- half-double 2 together crochet stitch (hdc2tog)

Snow Day Slouch

This hat features a knit ribbed brim for extra stretch and a crocheted spiral body. The crocheted spiral is created by skipping the occasional stitch and replacing it with a chain. For the original hat I skipped two stitches instead of one, but I find the holes to be a bit big.. so I'm writing the pattern to only skip one. If you don't know how to knit, or just don't feel like it, refer to the instructions below for a crocheted brim.

Yarn: Lambs Pride Super Wash Sport, 1 skein
Gauge:
Knitting: 19 sts and 36 rows = 4 inches k1, p1 ribbing
Crochet: 16 hdc sts and 12 rows = 4 inches
Needles: US 5 16" circular needles & US I crochet hook (also, US G hook if crocheting brim instead)

Knit Brim

Cast on 96 stitches. Join for in the round.

Work 1" (or a bit more if you like) of k1, p1 ribbing.

Cast-off loosely! Don't bind off the work! Instead, take the remaining stitch you get when you cast off and put it on your crochet hook. Treat this stitch as if it was a previous crochet stitch.

Crochet Brim
This is untested, so don't sue me.. But yeah.

Using a size G hook, loosely ch 96. Join for in the round.
Work 1" (or a bit more if you like) of 1 fphdc, 1 bphdc.

Crochet Spiral Body
Right, now you should be armed with a size I hook. The cast off stitches from your knit brim should serve as your basis for this first round of crochet. There should be 96 stitches.. make sure! You're going to be working rounds in a spiral.

Place marker at start of round.
R1: *4 hdc in cast off stitches, hdc2tog repeat around from * (80 stitches)
R2: [For a more traditional slouch, work this round just plain hdc around, otherwise..] *8 hdc, hdc2tog repeat around from * (72 stitches)
R3: *ch1, skip a st, 8 hdc, repeat around from *
R4: *1 hdc in ch st, ch1, 7 hdc, repeat around from *
R5: *1 hdc, 1 hdc in ch st, ch1, 6 hdc, repeat around from *
R6: *2 hdc, 1 hdc in ch st, ch1, 5 hdc, repeat around from *
Continue in the pattern of hdc'ing and ch 1'ing immediately after hdc'ing into the ch1 stitch until the hat measures 7.5".

Decreasing!
I'll be honest.. Eventually I removed the marker on my hat and just went until I hit the length I wanted. Then, not really minding where the "beginning" of the round was, I started decreasing. So..

R1: hdc until you're one stitch from a previous round's ch1 st. Place marker on the last stitch you made. *hdc2tog into hdc & ch1 st. Ch1, then hdc until you're one st from a previous round's ch1 st. Repeat from * to marker.
R2: *hdc, hdc into ch1 st, ch1, 5 hdc, repeat from *
R3: *hdc, hdc2tog hdc & ch1 st, ch1, 4 hdc, repeat from *
R4: *2 hdc, hdc into ch1 st, ch1, 3 hdc, repeat from *
R5: *2 hdc, hdc2tog hdc & ch1 st, ch1, 2 hdc, repeat from *
R6: *2 hdc, hdc2tog hdc & ch1 st, ch1, hdc, repeat from *
R7: *2 hdc, hdc2tog hdc & ch1 st, ch1, repeat from *
R8: *hdc, hdc2tog hdc & ch1 st, ch1, repeat from *
R9: *hdc2tog hdc & ch1 st, ch1, repeat from *
R10: hdc2tog around.
Bind off and weave in ends.

It's a slouch! Woooo!