Crochet a Hat for Science! Show your support for the scientific community and for fact-based decision making, and learn how to crochet a 2-color spiral while you're at it!

Spirals! Spirals appear throughout the universe in spectacular displays of mathematics and science. Also, they’re really cool-looking. And spirals are very nifty to crochet in multiple colours (here’s a tutorial).

This hat starts with a two-colour spiral at the top, and I designed it in part to showcase this neat technique. I also designed it in the wake of the incredibly powerful visual impact Pussyhats made at the Women’s Marches in January. The Hat for Science is a simple craftivist project just in time for the worldwide Marches for Science on April 22, 2017.

A chilling report that major U.S. news shows spent a combined total of less than an hour reporting on issues related to climate change in all of 2016 means we need to get seriously loud about the importance of scientific enquiry and fact-based decision-making. Those words may not sound sexy, but ignoring our dire need to address the impending devastation of life on earth​ isn’t sexy either. So.

Grab your hook and make a statement! Phone and write to your elected representatives (no matter where you live – this is not only an American issue!) and tell them you expect them to support funding for scientific research and to consider solid, peer-reviewed scientific findings when making decisions that affect our environment, education, food safety, medicine and more.​

Find the free Hat for Science pattern below, or download it as a print-friendly PDF:

 

Crochet a Hat for Science - free crochet pattern
Note: A small mistake in the pattern was corrected on 29 March 2017, indicated in bold text. Another was corrected, again in bold text, on 12 April 2017. To make sure you have the corrected version of the pattern PDF, check to make sure the file name has “v3” at the end.

Hat for Science

Sizing

To fit a medium/large adult head.

Finished brim circumference: ​22″ (56 cm).

To make the hat smaller or larger, work fewer or more increase rounds before working even (and adjust the number of work-even rounds). If you want to learn more about sizing hats of all sorts, you’ll enjoy my class, Crochet in the Round: Basics & Beyond!

Materials

Yarn: Worsted weight, about 75 yards colour A and 85 yards colour B. Shown here in: Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian Highland Wool; 220 yards [200 m] per 3.5 oz.) [100 g], 9452 Summer Sky Heather (blue; A) and 2429 Irelands (green; B).

Hook: 5.5mm (US I/9).

Notions: Removable stitch marker.

Gauge

14 sts and 9 rows = 4” (10 cm) in alternating rounds of dc and hdc.

Abbreviations

American terms are used.

A = colour A (shown here in blue)
B = colour B (shown here in green)
ch = chain
dc = double crochet
hdc = half double crochet
rep = repeat
sc = single crochet
sl st = slip stitch
tch = turning chain

Notes

Hat is designed to have each colour worked in a different stitch (A in dc, B in hdc), so that one colour is slightly more dominant than the other. Choose whether you’re, say, more inclined to advocate for land-related science (green) versus water-related science (blue), and make that colour your dominant colour A. The other will be colour B. (Obviously, you can make this hat in any colours you want, not only in blue and green!)

You will not join each round at the end, but rather work in a continuing spiral.

Use a removable stitch marker to indicate the final stitch of the round; move the marker up as you go.

Pattern

With A, begin with an adjustable ring.

Round 1: Insert hook in ring and pull up a loop, ch 1, work (2 sc, 2 hdc, 2 dc) in centre of ring, remove hook from A (pull the loop long to prevent unraveling); leaving a 6” tail, join colour B by pulling up a loop, ch 1, work (3 sc, 3 hdc) in centre of ring, place marker in stitch just made (this is the last stitch of the round) — 12 stitches total.

How to crochet a 2-color spiral: first round

Round 2: Continuing with B, [2 hdc in next stitch] 6 times, remove hook and reinsert in loop of A; with A, [2 dc in next stitch] 6 times — 24 stitches. (Note that a pattern has been set up: You will always work B into A, and A into B.)

Round 3: Continuing with A, [dc in next stitch, 2 dc in next stitch] 6 times; remove hook and reinsert in loop of B; with B, [hdc in next stitch, 2 hdc in next stitch] 6 times — 36 stitches.

Round 4: Continuing with B, [hdc in next 2 stitches, 2 hdc in next stitch] 6 times; with A, [dc in next 2 stitches, 2 dc in next stitch] 6 times — 48 stitches.

Round 5: Continuing with A, [dc in next 3 stitches, 2 dc in next stitch] 6 times; with B, [hdc in next 3 stitches, 2 hdc in next stitch] 6 times — 60 stitches.

Round 6: Continuing with B, [hdc in next 4 stitches, 2 hdc in next stitch] 6 times; with A, [dc in next 4 stitches, 2 dc in next stitch] 6 times — 72 stitches.

Continue in colour pattern as established, without increasing, as follows:

Round 7: Continuing with A, dc in next 36 stitches; with B, hdc in next 36 stitches. (Bold indicates corrections to mistakes in the original pattern. It’s all good now!)

Rounds 8-16: Continue to work even without increasing, working A stitches into colour B and B stitches into colour A.

Now smooth out the jagged end-of-rounds and begin the brim, as follows:​

Round 17(ish): (This is really a half round, for reasons that will become clear.) Continuing with A, dc in next 27 stitches, hdc in next 3 stitches, sc in next 3 stitches, sl st in next 3 stitches, fasten off A, move marker to final sl st (this will be the new “end” of the round).

Rounds 18-20: Continuing with B, sc all the way around (do not join your rounds); at the end of Round 20, sl st in the next 2 stitches, fasten off.

Weave in loose ends.

Close-up of last round of hat.

When you share your finished hat, make sure to tag me (@kpwerker) and #hat4science!

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