Earlier this week, a couple of different people showed me a photo of a hat with the top open so that a messy bun or ponytail could be worn with the hat. I’m a fairly new runner, and the weather is getting colder, so this seemed like a pretty awesome idea. I poked around Ravelry a bit, but wasn’t seeing what I wanted to do right off. I just wanted a simple double crochet hat, with ribbing at the bottom, just with the first couple of rows open. I started this hat by crocheting around a hair elastic, to give the opening some stretch. It worked perfectly with my pony tail! I don’t have enough hair for a bun, but I think you should be able to stretch the opening over one of those as well.
Materials:
Worsted Weight yarn.
Size 5 mm and 4.5 mm crochet hooks.
No metal hair elastic. I used the thick, ouchless ones made by Goody (affiliate link).
Notes:
For a cleaner look, use the chainless starting double crochet method for each new round. Moogly Blog has an excellent photo and video tutorial.
I used the measurements from Annie’s Picture Perfect as a guide for sizing the Adult and Teen sizes shown here. This chart is great for anyone wanting to come up with their own hat designs. For the hat height measurement (crown to bottom of ear), I compensated for the hole in the top by subtracting about an inch from the measurements in the linked chart. These hats are pretty stretchy, so there is a bit of flexibility in the circumference measurement.
Adult Woman hat instructions (22″ head circumference)
Slip stitch (ss) into the hair elastic using the larger hook.

Round 1: Double crochet (dc) 30 times around the elastic and join to the top of the first stitch with a ss . (30 dc)

Round 2: 2 dc in the joining stitch. dc in next two stitches. *2 dc in next stitch, dc in next two stitches* repeat around. Join to first dc. (40 dc)
Round 3: 2 dc in the joining stitch. Dc in the next three stitches. *2 dc in next stitch, dc in next three stitches. *repeat around. Join to first dc. (50 dc)
Round 4: 2 dc in the joining stitch. Dc in the next four stitches. *2 dc in next stitch, dc in next four stitches. *repeat around. Join to first dc. (60 dc)
Round 5: 2 dc in the joining stitch. Dc in the next five stitches. *2 dc in next stitch, dc in next five stitches. *repeat around. Join to first dc. (70 dc) circle should be 7-7.5 inch diameter. Adjust number of increase rows to get a 7-7.5″ diameter circle, if needed.

Rounds 6-10: dc in each stitch around. Join to first dc. (70 dc)

Rounds 11-17: switch to the smaller hook. Make a chain less starting dc in the joining stitch. *Front post dc (Fpdc) in next stitch and Back post dc (bpdc) in the one after that. *Repeat around. Join to first stitch. Once hat reaches 7.5-8″ from the top to bottom, fasten off and weave in ends.
Teen hat instructions (20-21″ head circumference)
Rounds 1-4 same as Adult size. Hat should measure between 6.25-6.75″ diameter. (60 dc at end of round 4).
Rounds 5-10: dc in each stitch around. Join to first dc. (60 dc)
Rounds 11-15: switch to smaller hook. Make a chainless starting dc in the joining stitch stitch. *Fpdc in next stitch, bpdc in the one after that. *Repeat around. Join to first stitch. Once the hat reaches 7-7.5″ from the top to bottom, fasten off and weave in ends.
