Crochet Hat Beginnings

It all started in 2001 at the Aspen Saturday Market, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I was a vendor selling handmade jewelry to tourists and locals every Saturday from June through October.

But as the weather cooled down in September, I saw that customers were too bundled up or too chilly to try on necklaces and bracelets. What could I design for the fall months of the market, which lasted through October? That's when I thought of making hand crocheted hats and scarves. 

My grandmother had taught me how to crochet afghan blankets when I was a child, and for awhile I'd provided family and friends with big, warm heirloom bedspreads. Hat design and construction was entirely different. 

I went online to learn the basic idea of shaping a hand crocheted hat, and I practiced, a lot. From the beginning, there were shapes I saw in my mind, shapes that mimicked classic styles like a rolled brim, a fedora, a cuffed ski hat, and others. I wanted to do fashionable crochet.

One of the first shaped hats I designed was the 4 Color Hat. It featured bobbles on the top and decorative stitches on the side, with a cornucopia of color possibilities.

4 Color Hat

And it was perfect for wearing under a ski helmet or just looking mountain-cool in Aspen. Men, women, and children bought the 4 Color Hat and walked colorfully through the market with it perched on their heads.

Man in 4 Color Hat at Aspen Saturday Market

Through a lot of trial and error, pulling out rows of stitches, writing down every formula in case it turned out to work perfectly, I commenced on a hat collection that would take me through fifteen years of farmers markets in CO and FL and craft shows from the Rockies to the Northeast.