Crocheted and Knitted Cloche Hats

Lately I've been working on some crocheted cloche hats. I had previously made a knit one using Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky Weight Yarn in Pink Candy. It was my first knitted hat. I took the patter for the Jayne Hat from the show Firefly and instead of adding the earflaps, I added a little ruffle along the bottom edge of the hat. I also added a three tier Irish Rose with a wooden button sewn in as the center of the flower. I thought it turned out pretty cute, especially for my first knitted hat. Since I had some yarn left over, I also made a matching neck warmer / collar. Here are pictures of both of those.

In the last two weeks or so I've been trying my hand at a crocheted version of a cloche style sun bonnet. I was working using a child's pattern and sized it up for an adult. The first one that I made turned out HUGE! It was really big even for my large noggin, and I was using a size F needle. Take a look if you don't believe me ...

See, I told you ... HUGE! It's still usable as a sunbonnet, but it wasn't quite the sophisticated yet simple 1920s/1930s look that I was going for.  So, for the second one, I moved down to an E size needle and changed from the Red Heart Sport yarn to the Caron Simply Soft Eco yarn in Soft Taupe. This worked out much much better. I made a similar Irish Rose to accent this hat as well just to add a little feminine touch.  Here's a picture of it. Way better than the first try. I will definitely stick with this yarn and size hook for future hats of this style