It might sound neurotic but productivity relaxes me. That’s how I got hooked on crocheting.
While pregnant with my son, i was sentenced to “bed rest” from my less-than-perfect placenta. I’m an active person so being stuck in an immobile and horizontal position was awful. I had to find other outlets to get my productive fix. Making beanies gave me a way to be productive, creative, and inspired. I ended up making hats galore and even opened up an Etsy shop.
Now that my boy is a toddler and training for the Olympic 2028 track team, I don’t have a whole lot of time to myself. But occasionally I do find some time at the end of the day while watching TV to get a little crafty. Best part, all it takes is a some yarn and a hook. Here is my most simple and broken-down-into-human terms tutorial for making an easy baby beanie with ear flaps. Bear with me and my instructions since my brother actually taught me how to crochet in our college days.
1) Start with some soft yarn and a crochet hook that is about 5.00 mm in size.
2) Begin by making a slip knot with the yarn. This is called casting on. Here’s a link to a great tutorial on how to exactly make a slip knot.
3) Put the slip knot into the crochet hook and wrap the yarn in your left hand around the hook.
4) Pull yarn through the slip knot on the hook and repeat four times (that’s called a chain 4).
5) Connect your last chain and put the end of the hook into the first whole or stitch that you made. Then wrap the piece of yarn around your hook once and pull through. This connects your chain of 5 stitches and makes it a circle.
6) Once your circle is connected, warp the yarn around your hook once and put the hook into the center of the circle. Then wrap the yard around the hook again and pull it through all three loops on you hook. E voile’, You have made your first really stitch! Repeat this 6 more times going into the center of the circle until you have arrived back where you started.
7) Now the fun part begins! Repeat the step 6 (which is how you make a single stitch) and make 2 stitches in each hole to fan out the top of the beanie. Do this for about 2-3 rows (more if the babies head is bigger). Then after 2-3 rows of double stitches in each hole, alternate 1 stitch in a hole and then 2 in the next and repeat for one row (if the top of the beanie gets all wavy and wonky than you have done too many rows of doubles and or alternates).
8) Continue making one stitch (like in step 6) in each hole to make the length of the beanie. After the last row or alternating stitches you make about 15-20 rows depending how long you want it to be and how big the child’s head is.
9) To make the earflaps just fold the beanie in half vertically and find the sides that you would want the flaps to go on. Then make another slip knot and cast on to where you would like your first stitch of the ear flap to be. Next make 5 stitched and then turn your work, and decrease your stitches to 4 now. To decrease, work the stitch as usual, but before you put the yarn over your hook, yarn over and insert your hook into the next stitch (This is what creates a row of 4 and then 3 and then 2, you get the idea). On this particular beanie I made my earflaps short and crocheted only 3 rows but you can make your longer if you wish.
