Working With Motifs...Again

A friend of mine is expecting her first child at the end of this month. Since she is expecting a girl, I took the opportunity in making her baby a gift to make something frilly and lace and completely inappropriate for my boy: a lace bonnet.

As indicated in my previous post, this project is another example of the versatility of motifs. The back of it is made out of this motif:

In order to make this motif an appropriate size, I only used the first four rounds of the pattern, which also made a better shape for the bonnet that the complete pattern would have.

For the side band, I used a pretty variation on crocheted net stitch:

• Row 1: *[Sc1, ch 5, sk 5] twice, sc1, sk2, (dc2, ch1, dc2), shell made, in next st, sk 2, rep from * across, ending sc1, ch5, sk5, sc1. Turn.
  
• Row 2: ch2 (counts as 1 dc), dc2 in last sc of prev row (counts as ½ shell), *sk 2, sc1in next ch5 space, [sc1, ch5, sk5] twice, sc1 in next ch5 space, sk2, (dc2, ch1, dc2) in next sc, rep from * across, ending with 3dc in final sc.
  
• Rep these two rows for desired length.

After completing the band, I decided to put a ruffled edging on the bonnet for a brim and an edging around the neck to finish the bottom edge. I used a handkerchief edging from Traditional Edgings to Crochet, by Rita Weiss (another handy resource).

I’ll do a post soon on the pattern for the edging around the neck of the bonnet (also taken from Traditional Edgings to Crochet, as it features a really interesting stitch. Again, I only used part of the pattern and ignored the final row, as it didn’t look right with the rest of the project or in the gauge I used (size 10 crochet cotton with a US size 7 steel hook).

Finally, I single crocheted around the entire edge and tacked the brim back against the side band. Then I finished the project by threading a yard-long piece of pink gauze ribbon through the base of the brim.