I have always been one to enjoy wearing headgear whether it be beanies, hats or whatever even though our amazing weather here in sunny South Africa does not really often call for stuff to keep your head warm. When I saw the bucket hat come across my YT feed, I thought, let me give it a go as it looked so simply stylish. Fortunately the tutorial by Nala Crochet had English subtitles, so it was very easy to follow. Knowing the basics of creating a beanie or hat, i.e. basic circle increases actually meant I hardly had to watch the tutorial at all - it was more the measurements used for the crown, depth of the hat and width of the brim that helped.
I did do one more increase round for the crown (13 rounds instead of 12, so a stitch count of 78) and after the inc row of the hat depth (row 4), giving me a final total of 84 sts, I did another 11 rows for the hat depth before starting on the brim which was 8 rows wide, following the increases as per pattern, giving me a final total of 140 sts.
I used a 4mm hook and an inexpensive acrylic chunky/bulky yarn that we get in South Africa called Charity Chunky (7wpi) and I was able to complete the hat in a day, that's how quickly it works up. I used about 87g to make the hat which was worked in a spiral/continuous circle so that there was no joining seam and finished off with the invisible join. I am very pleased with the way it came out. Even the brim was stiff enough not to have to use wire.
This is me wearing the hat helping clean up in our city centre after the massive looting and wanton destruction of shops and malls that took place in two of our provinces, Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal in July 2021. Never ever did I think I would see such a thing, I still cannot believe what we witnessed over 4 days . This has had a huge impact on our already-struggling economy and led to even greater hardship. Many, many people lost everything they had worked so hard for, there wass widespread food, medicine (especially urgent for those of us who need chronic meds) and fuel shortages, because it was too dangerous to open up routes into our provinces for trucks from other provinces to bring in supplies. But, we South Africans are a tough bunch - we dust ourselves off and we banded together to rebuild. We have hope - there is always hope especially when our hope comes from our faith in Jesus Christ.
Since making this hat and obviously wearing it out and about, I have made 4 other hats for people who saw the hat and liked it. I have made myself another one (navy) and used the basic principle to make myself a hat to match my Malia buttoned cowl and gloves,