Unraveling Divinity

I absolutely love Rheatheylia's designs. I adore her crocheted Cable Hat, am a fan of her Mesh Hat, and I have made the Divine Hat sooooooo many times! I have noticed, though, that on Ravelry not everyone finds them as easy as I do, and often have similar issues in getting the transition of reading the pattern to come out properly through their fingers. Because of this (and because I think everyone should love making the Divine Hat as much as I do! LOL), I am going to try and make some clarifications through photographs in this post. :) (Note: This is all written in US crochet terminology. For a UK translation, there is a nifty little "translator" here.) In the following photographs, I am using sport weight yarn cotton yarn and a size G/4.00mm hook to make a baby version of the hat.

Ok, so here we go...first off, I'll address the "how-to" of front post double crochet (fpdc). After you chain 2 to begin the next round, you insert the hook to the right of the post you want to work around:

Bring the hook behind the post, and back out on the other side of said post:

You will then yarn over, pulling the loop up behind the post, and proceed to finish out the double crochet as normal.

For the rounds of the pattern that read: "dc in the space between fpdcs", the placement of the double crochets is here:

When the single double crochet is sandwiched between two fpdc, it looks like this:

The placement for the instructions "dc in the first space between fpdc and dc" (italics mine) looks like this:

Notice that the fpdc is immediately to the right of the stitch, and that there is another space in between the previous row's dc and next fpdc. You skip over that second space and go immediately into the following fpdc, leaving a small "hole" (which looks less "hole-y" and more "lacy" when the hat is completed), like this:

Here's a better shot of described "hole":

The "hole" makes it look a little uneven and unbalanced, but it's okay, because that's how it's supposed to look, and what will, in the end, create the spiral effect of the finished object. : )

In the line of directions that reads: "2 dc in the first space between fpdc and dc" (again, italics mine), you are using the exact same technique as the previous row, you're just giving your lonesome, solitary double crochet a friend. : )

The same goes for the "3 dc in the first space between fpdc and dc" and the "4 dc in the first space between fpdc and dc":

As you can see, you simply skip over all the double crochets in the previous row. The only place you put the stitches (aside from the fpdc's) is immediately after said fpdc and before the previous row's grouping of normal dc's. The "hole" that this leaves is what pulls the next fpdc to the side, creating the spiral effect.

I had noticed that one or two people actually made their hats spiral in the opposite direction, and tried something out to see if it produced the same effect, and sure enough, it did! If you group your double crochets on the other side of the section, so that it goes "fpdc, hole, dcs, fpdc," then the spiral will go in the other direction.

I hope that these pictures were helpful! If you have any other questions about it, let me know and I'll try my best to explain it! : )



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S.P.E.W.

Yay for hats!!! My hat for the duel was quite a hit! :) I really enjoyed making it, too, so when Molly said she thought it'd look good in pink (incidentally her favorite color and my least favorite color, yet the color of yarn that seems to rule my stash...), I took up the mandate at once! :) That one got done just as fast as the green one for Elladora (who is actually in Hufflepuff, not Slytherin...she just likes greens...) and turned out looking great too, despite my dislike for the color.


Then the discussion of the hat bracket came up in the dueling club. A few of the crocheters were surprised to discover that the last round in the bracket is knit, even though I know that our coordinator specified that on more than one occasion. But their concern reminded me that I'm still pretty new to knitting. I've only just finished my first knit hat. So I've come to the decision that after I finish the hat for the present duel, I'm also going to do the knit one for the practice. Just in case I make it to the last bracket. I'd rather be prepared for it and not make it than to make it and then be in trouble with my less-than-stellar knitting abilities! I've decided that I'm going to send the hats to my own small part of S.P.E.W. October is breast cancer awareness month, so I think that all the excess hats I make I'm going to find people that have lost their hair due to chemotherapy to send them to. The first hat has cables, and that's something I've never tried before. I was a little nervous at first, but I watched a tutorial on knittinghelp.com, and WOW! I laughed at my apprehension. It's so easy. It's definitely slow going, due to both my lack of knitting experience and my two little boys that aren't content unless they're causing trouble...but if I make it to the knitting of hats in the duels, I may have a fighting chance...so long as the boys aren't anywhere around...lol

And on a happier note, I'm am very pleased to say that my owl stepped up to the plate and took off with his package for Miss Elladora...here's hoping my hat gets there before hers gets to me!!! ::crosses fingers::