Gauge, sizing and My Little Pony

The first patterns I have written were for my little Pony Hats.
 
My girl is crazy about My little Pony. She asked me to make her a Pinkie Pie or Rarity hat. This was last year. I have been crocheting since August 2012, so I was new to the whole designing and writing part of crocheting. I had made hats following other designers patterns, but never made one all by myself.

But I wanted to try, to see if I could do it. I started out with the basic hat pattern. There are a lot of different ways to make a basic beanie/ear flap hat. I have tried a couple. I am a loose crocheter and not all patterns suit my style of crochet. So I designed my own basic beanie / ear flap pattern. It has changed over the year, evolved. But my basic hat pattern as it is now, is giving me the right size every time, using the specified yarn. I love to work with Drops, especially Nepal or Alaska. If I use a different yarn, I have to go up or down a size in the pattern to achieve the correct size for the project. It's very important to make a swatch, before you choose what size hat you're making.

Gauge is a pain. Every one has their own way of crocheting and their own favorite yarn to work. To write a pattern to give every one the perfect size is impossible. Therefore you have to work with gauge. I didn't do it in the beginning. I found it really hard and frustrating at times. I always used a pattern as a guide, not as a step by step building plan. I tweak it so it works for me. But now, my patterns are getting more known, I have to succumb to the pressures of gauge hahaha


I work also based on head measurements. If you google you can find a few sites that will give you the average head sizes per age. If you calculate the diameter per head size, you know exactly how much increase rounds you have to make, to make it fit.

The formula is to divide your circumference by Pi = 3.14

So if you need to make a hat for a child and the head circumference is 47cm. You divide 47 cm by 3.14 = 15 cm (14.968). So you increase until you reach 15 cm from side to side of the circle.

To get the correct height of your hat (from top of crown to bottom of the ear) you divide your circumference by 10 and multiply this number times 4. 47 / 10 = 4.7 x 4 = 19 (18.8) cm

It's not that hard. I would recommend to make a chart for yourself, write down all the sizes, calculate the diameter and height  and then add your increase rounds. This way you know for every size how many increase rows and stitches you need.

This is mine:

Size	Stitches	Increase Rounds	Rows
Newborn	40	4	12
Baby 0-3 months	44	5	13
Baby 6-12 months	48	5	15
Baby 12-24 months	52	6	16
Toddler 2-4 years	56	6	17
Child 4-6 years	60	7	18
Child 6-10 years	64	7	19
Pre-teen/Teen	68	8	20-22
Adult	72	8	23

But I completely went off topic there!!

I wanted to tell you that I finally updated my Pony hat patterns. 

You can get them in my shops here: