Making This Winter Warmer

By Erin Burger – 14 Comments

Every Fall I get orders from customers online for warm winter wear, but more importantly I get many orders here at home from my pickiest, ficklest customers: my own four children.

It seems like this year’s biggest requirement from the older children is that they want their hats to match compliment their new winter coats and they want them to be very, very warm.

Here are some tips for making extra warm winter accessories:

  • Use Wool! A lot of people have wool allergies, but even a wool mix yarn (which will cause much less irritation than pure wool) will give more warmth than any other type of yarn. There are now major companies releasing ‘superwash’ versions of wool that won’t felt or pill up and can be thrown into the washer and dryer!
  • Double or even triple up! Using two or three strands held together for the basic hats, scarfs, cowls and wraps insulate times two or three. If you’re using a pattern, try to match the gauge in order to successfully complete it with double or triple strands of yarn.
  • FPDC hats! Using a Front Post Double Crochet stitch throughout a beanie creates a stretchy and thick knit-like look and also makes rows inside the hat which provide extra warmth.
    This photo shows the inside of the crown of my daughter Maxine’s winter hat:
    This photo shows my daughter Rose’s finished winter hat (without the bow she refuses to wear) and the ‘knit’ look fpdc stitches can create:

Have any other warming tips or any questions about the tips? Don’t hesitate to comment here!

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14 Comments

  1. Janelle says:

    Hey! I was wondering if you have any patterns or tips on crocheting hats?? Now that it is getting cold I want to crochet some hats for myself and friends, but I’m not sure where to start! Thanks! -Janelle

    • Rachel says:

      Hi Janelle, there are tons of hat and beanie patterns on Crochet Spot (way too many to try and link here)! If you’d like you can use the search box at the top of the page and type in the word hat or the word beanie and a bunch of patterns will pop up for you. Let me know if you need help with any of them.

  2. Rebekah says:

    I like to make hats using the Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn.

    It’s super thick and super soft. I also line my beanies with felt to make the inside warmer and softer. Bring on the cold weather!

  3. Tina says:

    Rachel, I love the tips you published for warmer hats & beanies, especially the use of fpdc. I find it gives a really nice cable-effect, and I like to use it in scarves and afghans, too. But I can’t believe you have four kids! You look like a young girl, yourself. 😉

  4. Cary2Crafty says:

    I love the look of the FPDC. I don’t think I’ve seen a hat pattern like this before. Does Erin have a blog we can follow to get this pattern – and maybe eve more?

  5. dj says:

    is this pattern available ?

  6. Erin says:

    Hi Cary and DJ,
    I write for two sites, but I don’t post patterns on either of them, I only write patterns for Crochet Spot.
    In case you still would like to check them out, despite the lack of patterns they are at bloggingisfordorks.blogspot.com or ultracutecrochet.blogspot.com .
    I don’t usually use patterns for any of my hats, but it’s very simple to turn a very basic ‘dc’ pattern like this one: http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-a-hat/ and use all fpdc in place of each dc.

  7. dj says:

    Erin~ thank you ! this helps with the charity here in my town for the homeless….easy hat pattern

  8. sue day says:

    do you have the pattern available for this hat?

  9. Lindy says:

    What a great idea, to make this hat even warmer. I will try it out tomorrow.
    Have recently made a trip to North Carolina, and found the neatest idea. A lady makes and sells socks and uses the same 5 or 6 colors of yarn in each, but makes each one an entirely different color pattern. Then she sells them in groups of three, so there is always a “spare”. The socks are called solmate socks. Her motto is “Life’s to short for matching socks”! I am excited to give these to my granddaughters for Christmas. They are going to love getting three socks instead of a pair! These socks are knitted, but it would be fun to try in crochet.

  10. […] mentioned here in the post Making a Warmer Winter a few ways to thicken and add warmth to beanies, but what about adding a little bit of […]

  11. Erin says:

    For the crochet-er who lines with felt- how do you measure it out? I’d love to do it. Does it require sewing?? 🙂

  12. Jessica says:

    Thank you SO much for this post! I have been making a FPDC hat and I keep restarting it because it looks REALLY messed up and seeing this post made me realize that it is suppose to look like that on the inside lol. Thank you now I don’t have to restart it another 10 times lol.

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