I’ve been suffering from two itches lately. An itch to crochet something – I reckon it has to do with the weather warming up – and an itch to knit more quirky hats. So on the weekend I started a project that ought to satisfy both itches, the Yeehaw Lady hat in The Happy Hooker.

Now, while I learned crochet as a child, and have hooked confidently with wild abandon before now, I’ve only recently attempted to follow patterns. This has led to some interesting discoveries. Like the fact that the first loop to work is apparently different depend on whether you’re doing a sc/dc or a dc/tr. (And the whole Australian/US terminology translation thing doesn’t help, either, but I’m getting used to it.)

I figured if I followed the directions for the hat closely I ought to be fine. And this pattern told me when to follow the sc/dc first loop rule and when to ignore it and skip the first loop. So I was a bit perplexed when the top of my hat looked less like a symmetrical pear and more like a paisley fractal.

The red line indicates where the rounds begin and end, the yellow is the line of increases at the front point of the hat.

I figured this might block out and continued on down the sides. Now, I know I made a mistake with the joining of rounds for the first few rounds, so the bulge on the right side of the hat is entirely my fault.

But the twisting in different directions from one stitch pattern to the next… I have no idea where that came from.

Now, I will admit that I didn’t check for errata before I started. But today, when I went looking for one, via the publisher’s site, crochet forums, shops and blogs, all the links led me to a “This page cannot be found” message. Mind you, the errata for the Ladylike Lace Gloves created more problems than it fixed, so perhaps I’m better off.

Still, the instructions do make sense. I’m more inclined to think that there’s something seriously wrong about the way I do crochet that’s causing all this twisting. I just haven’t a clue what it is.

And since I don’t have any florist wire for the brim I can’t finish it anyway, so I think this might be one of those “put the crochet down. Now back away slowly. Make no sudden moves. Now get back to your wips” moments.