Note to my readers: This blog post first appeared on August 27, 2010, under the title “Notes on a Nubby Brimmed Cloche.” While the pattern for the Nubby Brimmed Cloche is free, the designer, Eileen Tepper has several other worthy patterns available for sale in her Etsy store.

August 27, 2010, 10:36 am.

Having finished breakfast, washed dishes, done some laundry, and put in time on the treadmill, I was ready to sit on my deck and enjoy the waning days of summer while I tried my hand at item number 92 on my crochet bucket list.

First, a refresher: item number 92 on my crochet bucket list was this hat:

Notice my use of the past tense, “was”

Today between errands and housework, I managed to complete my very first attempt at Eileen Tepper’s “Nubby Brim Cloche,”and while I have some issues I need to resolve in terms of my execution of the pattern, I can see that once I get my personal bugs worked out, I will have a go-to project that can be quickly made to either give as a gift for for my own use.

I started with a stretch of almost two hours in which I was able to work with what for me are minimal interruptions. Armed with my Susan Bates K hook, and one pound cone of Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing Company’s Peaches & Creme double worsted weight yarn in the color sunburst, I sat at the table that is my outdoor office with the PDF of the pattern for the hat on my computer screen. I had wanted to use the Peaches & Creme because it is cotton, and I though that cotton would give the cloche a summery feel to it.

The directions were clear and straight forward, and after just sixteen minutes I had managed to finish the first three rounds and weather one interruption. By noon, when I had to leave for the first round of the day’s errands, I had managed to get through the first seventeen rounds of the pattern, and I was ready to begin working on the brim.

When I returned home from the first bout of errands, I quickly got back to the project. As I got to the fourth round of the brim, it was clear that the length of my stitches had made the bowl of the hat too long.

The hat I was making would have been perfect for the Conehead family of Saturday Night Live fame, so I pulled all of my stitches out back to the 13th row, and began the brim two rounds earlier. The brim on the hat I made is longer than the brim pictured, so I may, in the next attempt, reduce the length of the brim by a round or two so that the front does not need to be turned up in order for the wearer to see properly.

There are several interesting things about the hat, not the least of which is the stitch pattern used that give the hat the nubby texture referenced in the name of the pattern. The texture is achieved by working in the round and alternately working half-double crochet stitches in the front and the back loops of the stitches that are being worked.

Not only will I be making this hat again, but I will also be making use of the nubby stitch that is used to such good effect in this project in other projects of my own.

Meanwhile, I need to find a new project to replace number 92 on my crochet bucket list.