Beret

So, a friend of mine commissioned two crocheted berets for her daughters as Christmas presents. I am using a modified version of a Red Heart pattern. I say modified because I did not like the way the original pattern came together.

Red Heart's picture of their pattern

This is my walk through of the pattern and explanation of my changes.


Note:
to make inc in this pattern [ch 1, 3 dc] twice in same sp
to make dec in this pattern draw up loop in ea of next 2 dc, yo and through all 3 loops on hook. (basically, sc together 2 dc from previous rnd).

Ch 5; join with sl st to make a circle

RND 1: Ch 3, 2 dc in ring, ch 1. [3 dc in ring, ch 1] repeat 4 times. join to ch 3 with sl st.  5 sets

RND 2: [ch 3, 2 dc] in next dc. *Ch 1, 3 dc in next sp. ch 1, skip next dc** 3 dc in next sp. Then, continue from * to ** all the way around. Sc into top of ch 3 to finish the round. (I know this is different than the usual sl st into ch to finish round, but it works here). 10 groups of 3 dc.

The spaces are from the ch 1, skip a dc part.

RND 3: Ch 3, 2 dc over sc from previous rnd. [Inc in next sp. Ch 1, dc 3 in next sp.] repeat until end of rnd. Sc into top of ch 3 to finish the rnd. 15 groups of 3 dc.

Notice the pretty pentagonal shape here. The inc sts go into the sp from rnd 2 where the 2 are clustered, and the non-inc sets go into the spaces in the above pic.

RND 4: Ch 3, 2 dc over sc from previous rnd. ch 1 and 3 dc in every space around. (this kills the pretty pentagon and makes it a messy circle). sc in top of ch 3 to finish rnd. 15 groups of 3 dc.

RND 5: Ch 3, 2 dc over sc from previous rnd. *ch 1, 3 dc in next sp, inc in next space** ch 1, 3 dc in next sp. Then continue from * to ** around. Then sc in top of ch 3 to finish the rnd. (This basically reforms the pentagon from above). 20 groups of 3 dc.

RND 6: Repeat RND 3 from above. (this continues the pentagonal shape but with 2 groups of 3 dc in between ea corner instead of 1). 30 groups of 3 dc.

RNDs 7-10: Repeat RND 4. (aaaaaaand we destroy the pentagon again to make a circle. It will start to curl up on the ends, this is correct).

This is row 8. This is where the ends start to curl up.

RND 11: Repeat RND 4 one last time, EXCEPT end with a sl st in top of ch 3 to end the rnd, instead of a sc.

RND 12: Ch 3, dc in ea sp around and join with a sl st at top of ch 3 to finish the rnd. 90-93 sts. (This is my deviation from the pattern. The original pattern says to skip the ch-1 spaces, but this only comes to like 60 sts, not the 90 they call for. So, dc in every st).

RND 13: Ch 1. *sc in same st as joining and in next 6 dc (7 sc total). Dec. ** repeat from * to ** around and join with sl st to first sc. 80ish sts.

RND 14-17: Repeat RND 13. (this is another deviation from original pattern. It called for simply sc in all sts for 7 rnds and then folding in half to finish off. This made a HUGE beret, much too large to fit my head [and I have a pretty big head]. The pattern also called for optionally adding elastic inside this packet, but with as large as this was, the elastic would have been necessary. By just continuing to dec for several rnds, you don't need to do as many rnds, and you wont need the elastic).

Enjoy!