Diamond Hats

I was really hankering to crochet something so I set out searching for a pattern to crochet. I found a nice pattern on this site of a Diamond Ridges Crochet Hat.

I set to work on the pattern for making my first hat.  One step I didn't follow, which said to make sure the stitches were loose. The hat came out to be petty stiff and small, small enough for a baby or toddler.  Instead of finishing the last two rows, I left it as it was because I liked the 1920's look it had. Of course, wanting to do a little more, I found a site that had a cute flower (if you scroll down far enough on the linked site, you'll find the pattern for a flower brooch) I could stitch to the outside. On this site, I only used the pattern for the first flower.

I then set to making one as a gift for a 9 year old girl. Thinking I could 'make' the stitches a bit loose by using a larger needle, I ended up having a huge hat, because I wasn't so tight with my stitches on top of using a larger needle (I also think the thickness of the yarn made a difference in this one). This hat was large enough to fit my big head and hold all my hair in it too!

1st Hat-finished with last 2 rows of pattern, 2nd Hat-leftout
one stitch, 3rd Hat-my second try

Since I ran out of yarn of the deep purple, I switched to a multi colored yarn of pinks & purples. This third hat I made was turning out to be too large also, even with a smaller needle. For kicks on this hat, I went ahead and finished the last two rows on the pattern.
So, I'm out of my hankering & I still needed a hat for a 9 year old girl!!!
I figured for my last try, I would try eliminating one of the stitches in the first row of the pattern. The first few rows went smoothly & it wasn't until I reached the 7th row that I had to really think on ways to connect the two ends of each of my rows - to make the diamond ridge shape hold together.

Of course for this last hat, I couldn't decided which color of flower to attach to it. I posted it on FB & had an awesome response from my family & friends. They suggested that I make the flowers detachable/switchable. :) I made 3 separate flowers, used hot glue to glue alligator hair clips and jewels onto the flowers. The hat fit perfect and the girl was soooooo pleased with it!