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Crocheted hats come in all varieties, from cozy beanies to lacy berets. If you want to crochet your own hat or you already have a crocheted hat, you'll need to learn how to care for it. A crocheted hat should hold its shape or else it won't look right on your head; the shape and yarn content of the hat itself will determine how you take care of it to keep that hat high on style.
Beanies
A beanie is a hat that pulls down over your head and ears to keep you warm. You might also know it as a toque or a skully cap, depending on where you live. A crocheted beanie starts out flat at the top, spiraling out from the center as the crocheter makes it wider to fit your head. Then she works downward, crocheting the sides. When the hat is finished it resembles a dome, so it shouldn't be flat unless you fold it down in half for storage. If you crochet this type of hat, keep it flat in the round until you reach the circumference of the wearer's head, then work evenly around and straight down from there.
Cloche
A crocheted cloche is a popular style with women of all ages because of how flattering it is. It fits like a beanie on top, but it has a wider, flared brim at the bottom that works well with a variety of hairstyles. This style of hat is reminiscent of the flapper looks from the 1930s; again, it should be rounded on top and not flat at all unless you fold it in half.
Berets
A beret style of crocheted hat will be mostly flat to fit properly. With this style of crocheted hat, you should be able to fit a dinner plate inside the hat, and it will look nearly flat when you do so. When you make this type of hat, you crochet much wider than you would with a beanie style, creating the flat, circular top of the beret. Then you decrease your stitches to come back down to the size of the wearer's head. When you own this type of hat, it should flatten onto itself in a wide circular shape when you store it. When you wear it on your head, it should come down to just about ear height, covering half your forehead and the top of your skull area with a flat, large base on top.
Other Options
Crochet hats can take on the shape of a cowboy hat, which is anything but flat. They can be a yarmulke, which would be almost flat but have a slight domed top to it; this type of hat is really only worn by Jewish men, but it is relatively easy to make in crochet stitches. A crocheted ear flap hat would be like a large dome with flat portions on the side to cover the ears. Some crocheters like to make hats in a large tube shape and then seam the top shut to make a wide, pointed style topper on their hats. All these will have a rounded shape to them rather than being completely flat.
