Wrong size beanie

[Kw82]

I have tried 3 different patterns for beanies and they all come out too big and end up going out at an angle. I don't know why. Trying to make beanie for my 3 yr old daughter. Then matching slouch beanie for my 9 month old and husband.

[Granny Square]

Welcome to the 'ville!

Not sure what you mean re: 'out at an angle'.  If you post a pic, we might be able to see what that issue is.  Do you mean, it just kept getting wider and wider?  Check out my last paragraph.

Regarding fit for hats - that part is easy most of the time, especially if you are using an uncomplicated stitch pattern.

Most crochet hats are top down, and start with a flat circle, and after a point you stop increasing and 'work even', without increasing to the length you want.

You need to know the recipient's head circumference, and preferred length from crown to brim.  Here is a link with some approximations by age

Let's say your 3 year old's head circumference is 20", and crown to brim measurement is 8" (borrowing from the above chart). The chart I linked assumes you are folding up the brim 2", so would be 6" with no roll-up.

A bit of math now : Circumference is pi (3.24) times diameter.  Or, diameter is circumference divided by pi.  20 divided by 3.14 is about 6.5" exact fit, or will allow for some growth.  

Crocheting a flat circle:  for plain stitches, you start with a number in the first round, and increase by that number in subsequent rounds.  For SC it's 6, for HDC it's 8 or 9 depending on your gauge, for DC it's 12.  It's based on stitch height, so if you have a stitch mix the number might split the difference of the stitches used.  Let's assume plain stitches.  Here's a tutorial with a bit more detail

So let's say you want to make your daughter a plain DC hat.  Make a flat circle that's as  close to 6.5" in diameter as you can, then stop increasing and continue to work until the center start of the hat to the brim is 6 or 8" depending on your roll-up preference (allowing extra for roll up might allow her to grow out of it slower).

One thing that used to trip me up when making joined circles in rounds (not spirals), is the spot where you join the last stitch of a round with a slst to the first stitch of the round.  That slip stitch sort of looks like a stitch, but isn't.  The red arrow in the below scan is pointing to the sneaky not-a-stitch.  If you use it as a stitch, your count will increase - may be why your hats  were too big.  What I often do is mark that spot with a bobby pin (my stitch marker of choice) and use it as part of the last increase - instead of 2 stitches into the last stitch, 1 in the last stitch and one in the not-a-stitch--this closes the gap that sometimes happens there, and keeps the stitch count right.

 

 

 

[Kw82]

They wnd up something like this. The last one I undid was really wide at the bottom. I wanted to do one with a small flower. I used the lion ice cream brand. 

[Granny Square]

This looks perfectly OK and normal shape wise.  If it's too wide, the geometry of the initial flat circle was wrong for some reason. 

Did you check your gauge to the pattern?  If the designer had a different height gauge than you, and the pattern said to work x rows increasing in the circle before working even, her hat wouldn't fit the same way as yours would--maybe you needed to work x minus 1 rows for the right fit, if your gauge was looser/taller than the designer.  You really need to measure the recipient and do the math as I described above to assure a hat will fit.   That site I linked said something like 'if you are making hats to donate, it will fit somebody' but if you are making it for a specific person, you need to measure, swatch, do some math and be ready to tweak the pattern.

If you can tell where the increase rows stopped, with the hat folded like the photo -- measure from the very center of the circle, to the edge of the increase row, then multiply by 2 for your diameter that determines the size.  Using my example, for a 20" head it needed to be 6.5" (or slightly less, it will stretch a little; but do the math).  If it was 6.75" for example, the brim would be 21.2" around--so the circle being only 1/4" too big, would make a hat 1.2" too big.  (6.75 x 3.14 = 21.2)

 

[Kw82]

Ok thank you.😀