I love Jenna Wingate’s Scrap Buster Hat crochet pattern, and not just because its free –although that doesn’t hurt–I love it because it is pure crochet genius, and as I work on two hats in an effort to make my way through my still very large yarn stash, I am reminded, that some crochet patterns are more perfect than others, and this is one of them.

To start, I love the foundation of the hat because it easily allows for adjusting to get a good fit. As I have learned, a hat that stays on your head is much warmer than one that doesn’t.

Then there is the genius of using what you have–in this case, your scrapish bits of yarn–and taking what could be a candidate for the trash and turning it into something fun and attractive.

Topping it all off is what for me is the pièce de résistance–the braid. It is decorative and functional, pulling together all of the colors into a coherent whole, while giving the hat a decidedly joyful feel.

But I am not that far yet with my hats. As the photo below shows, I am not quite to the “braid stage” of my hat making. In fact, I am only six of twenty rounds in on the two hats:

I am using color to create different personalities for each of the hats, as I am trying to make them to suit each of the personalities of the children for whom they are intended.

This means that I am having to choose the colors with two things in mind: the personality of the individual child and how those colors play with each other, and so far, it is going pretty well:

I hope that once all of the stripes or crocheted, the ends woven in, and the strands of yarn for the braid are attached and plaited, that the children who wear these hats enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them.