A trapper hat with ear flaps, worked with a plaid pattern across it. Sized from newborn up to 12 months. Medium weight yarn in four colours. Designed by Bethany, who includes a video tutorial for the plaid technique.
How crocheted plaid works
The plaid is not worked as colourwork in the usual sense. The base fabric is crocheted in stripes, and the vertical lines are added afterwards – usually as surface slip stitches worked up through the fabric.
That means you never have to manage four colours at once while crocheting. You work a striped hat, which is simple, and then add the crossing lines at the end. It is considerably easier than it looks, and the video tutorial is worth watching before starting rather than after.
Colour choice
Traditional plaid uses one dominant colour, one secondary, and two accents. Keep the dominant colour as the largest area and the accents narrow – four colours in equal amounts produces a check rather than a plaid, and the effect is much weaker.
Contrast matters. Adjacent tones that are close in value will blur into each other and the grid will not read.
Working the surface lines
Keep an even tension on the vertical lines. Pulled tight, they gather the fabric and the hat puckers along each line. Loose, they sit proud and catch. Aim to match the tension of the base fabric so the lines sit flat within it.
Work them from the same direction each time so they all lie the same way.
Sizing
Babies grow quickly through this range. If you are making it as a gift, choose the larger size – a hat slightly too big can be worn with the brim folded up, while one too small cannot be worn at all.
Ear flaps and ties
Ear flaps are the point of a trapper hat and they should sit well down over the ears.
If the pattern includes ties under the chin, consider leaving them off for a young baby and working the hat slightly snugger instead. Cords near a small neck are worth avoiding.
