A Summer Hat with Daol « Swiss Crochet

Add a touch of flair to your summer wardrobe with this lightweight, stylish crochet hat made using Daol — a 100% paper yarn that’s perfect for sunny days. Whether you’re heading to the beach or strolling through the city, this hat blends shimmer and shade in the most elegant way.

The Yarn

The discovery of the Nakyang Daol yarn was a true highlight a couple of years ago. In my nearly 2 decades of crocheting and knitting experience, this is the first paper yarn I came across that was so crisp and strong. I was truly amazed when I first tried it out.

Crocheting with Daol is quite pleasant. Of course it is not soft as other plant-based yarns such as cotton, but it is not too stiff, making it comfortable to work with for long crochet sessions.

Daol has great stitch definition and a beautiful matte finish. Each finished piece will have good structure, maintaining it’s shape and resisting stretching.

Daol is a robust yarn that can handle everyday use. If Daol gets wet, it will soften up a bit, but it will not lose it’s structural integrity. It is generally recommended to steam it instead, in case you want to shape it or clean it.

In this project, I am combining Daol with Laines du Nord Arme to give the final result a shimmering glitter finish. Arme is a versatile yarn; it can be worked on it’s own or held together with other yarns to add sparkle.

The Design

For this project I am using the D. Hat pattern from Ayaka Chiba’s Book, Couture Taschen. It is a summer hat with a wide textured brim that slants slightly downwards.

It is worked from the top down and in continuous rounds – there is no visible start and end of round. The main part of the hat is worked in one yarn only, while the brim combines the main yarn with a glittery second yarn.

The piece is finished off with a long cord that is sewn on and tied at the base of the brim. This helps adjust the size of the hat, stabilize that edge and prevent stretching with use. This is an important feature, as the hat comes in one size, but our heads are definitely not all the same size! You can use this cord to easily size down the hat to fit you perfectly.

The pattern comes with a detailed crochet chart, as well as illustrations of each finishing detail. This is typical of Japanese craft books; they are very pictorial and thorough in their illustrations.

This is a beginner friendly project, as it only uses basic crochet stitches and it is easy to follow the instructions step-by-step.

The Project

The pattern originally calls for a Raffia yarn, which is typically a thin and flat yarn. Daol is quite different, as it is round and a bit thicker, but still suitable for this project.

Due to this difference, as expected, I was not able to match gauge with the 3.00 mm hook. I would have to reduce the size of the hook to do so. I did not want to work with a smaller hook, because that would make Daol too stiff and not very comfortable to work with. So I started the project, knowing that my finished item will be larger than prescribed. It is a hat, not a garment, so I was comfortable taking this risk without much thought.

And indeed, the hat turned out a bit larger; but not so large that it is unusable. I used the cord to size down the hat to my measurements; basically tied it together to the point that the hat fits my head well. This results in a bit of waviness across the base of the hat, but that’s not too visible when worn.

What was definitely a surprise, was the final length of the brim. I noticed while I was working on it, that it was getting too long, but I decided to trust the pattern and make it as is. My gut-feeling was right: the brim turned out way too long. If I don’t flip the brim over and upwards, I cannot see much when I wear the hat! It definitely provides ultra-sun protection like this, but it is not very practical. I think I will do some modification on this in the future, maybe undo some of the last rounds.

If you want to make this pattern with Daol as well, I recommend to stop working on the brim about half-way through. No other modification would be necessary, and you would get a gorgeous hat.

For this hat, I used Daol in the color 251 and Arme in the color 1011. The pattern calls for using the shiny yarn only every other round in the brim, but I wanted the shiny effect to be a bit more pronounced, so I used Arme in the entire brim – all rounds.

The cord is worked with Daol double-stranded, so I used a 4.50 mm hook for making the cord.

Once the hat was completed, I used a handheld steamer to let the yarn relax and set in the new shape, smoothing out any inconsistencies in gauge or on the surface.

I am very happy with the result – the two yarns combine together beautifully, creating a modern and elegant result. The hat is comfortable to wear and does not scratch the skin. It provides good shade and protection from the sun. This is a new favorite!