07-11-2016

Just finished the hat. Love the pattern, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out the tailfin, so I adjusted it, did it like this. rounds 1-3 as shown in the pattern, that’s fine.
round 4: repeat 3 dc, then 2dc in some stitch to end of round, results in 30 stitches.
round 5: repeat 2dc in some stitch, then 4 dc to end of round, results in 36 stitches.
round 6: repeat 5 dc, then 2dc in some stitch to end of round, results in 42 stitches.
round 7: repeat 2dc in some stitch, then 6 dc to end of round, results in 36 stitches.
round 8: repeat 7 dc, then 2dc in some stitch to end of round, results in 54 stitches.
round 9: repeat 2dc in some stitch, then 8 dc to end of round, results in 60 stitches.
from this point in it’s as if you’ve been doing the top of the hat and then you come down to do the sides. There are slip stitches in here which you need to do quite loose so you can get the next row of DC into them. the SS i think just make pretty ridges but they may also be structural, you could try without and see the difference. They’re not very obvious on the finished product.
round 10: 13 dc, 4ss, 26dc, 4dc, 13ss - resulting in 60 stitches. all rounds from now on shouldbe 60 stitches.
round 11: dc all the way round
round 12: 11dc, 8dd, 22dc, 8ss, 11dc
round 13: dc all way round
round 14: 9dc, 12ss, 18dc, 12ss, 9dc
round 15: dc all way round
round 16: 7dc, 16ss, 14dc, 16ss, 7dc
round 17: dc all way round - you get the idea, each alternating round from now on is all dc’s
round 18: 5dc, 20ss, 10dc, 20ss, 5dc
round 20: 3dc, 24ss, 6dc, 24ss, 3dc
round 22: 1dc, 28ss, 2dc, 28ss, 1dc
pull through but leave a long trailing end for sewing up.

Fold it in half so the edge of the hat touches itself, and sew
it up, one side to the other.

Then the other major difference in my design is that I put a line of half treble crochet along the ‘top’ edge, if you still imagine it as a hat - when you hold up, you’ll see which way round looks more fin shape to you. then sew onto the rest of the hat.