Easy Everyday Crochet Beanie – free pattern + video tutorial

The Everyday Crochet Beanie is exactly as the name describes! It’s the perfect, easy crochet beanie that will become a staple in your fall and winter wardrobe. This beginner-friendly crochet beanie features a ribbed fold over brim with a tapered head and is topped off with a yarn pom pom! You can also add a faux fur pom pom or leave off the pom pom entirely for a chic and minimalist beanie.

The beanie pattern has seven different sizes – preemie, baby, toddler, child, tween, adult small and adult large – so you can make a beanie for everyone in the family! And once you get the hang of the pattern, it’s very easy to customise to any size and this pattern works up quickly.

This crochet beanie pattern is great for beginners as it only has a 2 row repeat with no increases or decreases! You’ll crochet a trapeze shape, fold it in half, sew the edges together and then sew the top closed. The stitches used for this DIY are half double crochet and slip stitches – that’s it!

If you’re complete and total beginner (as in you’ve never picked up a crochet hook before) I’d recommend trying the 1 Hour Crochet Beanie or the Skylar Crop Top for an even easier 1 row repeat pattern!

Design Inspiration

During the winter, my sister asked me to make some crochet beanies for my little niece and nephew! She was very clear that she wanted a ribbed brim, plain simple hat portion, very little bunching at the top and then a yarn pom pom. I quickly whipped up two little merino crochet beanies for them and they were just so cute!

Little did I know how much everyone else would like them too 🙂 Before I knew it friends, family members and strangers asked my sister where she got the beanies from, she told them I’d crocheted the beanies and requests started flooding in. It got to the point where all of my nephew’s friends were wearing this exact beanie!

I couldn’t find the time to keep making beanies for everyone and one of the mums asked me if I could write the pattern so that she could make her own. I hadn’t actually planned to write out this pattern because I thought that it was so simple. But it turns out that the key to this pattern – the tapered edge – isn’t a widely available crochet pattern hat construction!

So here is the tapered Everyday Beanie crochet pattern with baby, child and adult sizes!

Yarn

The Everyday Beanie uses WeCrochet’s Swish Worsted yarn which is a 100% merino. Merino is one of my absolute favourite fibres as it’s incredibly versatile, soft and warm. This yarn is machine washable and it can be tumble dried so its great for kid’s items! Swish Worsted comes in over 30 different shades ranging from neutrals to pastels to brights and half of the shades are heathered! I love how the heathered yarns have such a subtle mix of complementary shades. 

I find that Swish Worsted is slightly on the thinner side of a worsted/aran/medium (4) yarn – it’s very close to a thick DK/Light (3). So if you want to substitute this yarn look for a thick DK or thin worsted yarn and as always make sure you check gauge so that your beanie turns out the correct size!

Beanie Construction

The Everyday Beanie is worked lengthways which means that the foundation chain equals the height of the beanie, not the width. This construction allows us to crochet a tapered beanie that has very little ‘bunching’ at the top of the beanie (and any bunching pretty much disappears once you wear the beanie on your head!).

I’m not sure about you but I find that beanie patterns that have too much bunching at the top of the beanie make me feel a bit like a smurf hahaha. With chunky ribbed designs you can easily crochet a rectangle and then the ribbing will hide all of the ‘bunchiness’. However with thinner yarns, the tapering in this crochet beanie pattern is the key to creating the smooth and wearable crochet beanie that looks modern and not ‘crafty’ 🙂

How to crochet a simple tapered beanie

We’ll start with a row of half double crochets and then the first row of the 2-row repeat starts with slip stitches. The slip stitches are crucial to giving the beanie the ‘tapered’ look that GREATLY reduces bunching at the top of the beanie. We’ll crochet along the row with half double crochets and for the last few stitches we’ll crochet back loop half double crochets to give the brim a knit-like ribbed look.

For the second row of the 2-row repeat, we’ll crochet a few back loop half double crochets and then half double crochet in each stitch until the end of the row. As you approach the end of the row make sure that you’re working into the slip stitches of the previous row.

The easiest way to make sure you’re on the right track is to rotate your stitches towards you so you can see the tops of the ‘v’ shapes. That way you’ll know that you’re always working into the previous row. This method is also great when you’re looking for the back loop when you’re crocheting the back loop half double crochets!

We’ll then repeat those 2 rows until your beanie is a trapeze-like shape and reaches the desired width. To check that your beanie will fit you, simply wrap the beanie around your head.

Just a note – beanies are generally very stretchy so the finished size will always be smaller than your actual head circumference!

After you’ve crocheted your tapered beanie, whip stitch the short edges together and then stitch along the top of the beanie, pulling on your yarn after every couple of stitches.

Sewing Tips for a Tapered Beanie

To have a very small hole (or completely non-existent hole) at the top of your beanie, make sure that your stitches aren’t spaced too close together (I spaced out approximately 1 stitch for every 2 rows).  Also, only sew along the strands on the very edges of the beanie and pick up 1-2 strands of yarn – don’t insert your hook deep into the stitches and pull stitches together as you sew.

This description might seem very detailed but after crocheting so many beanies I’ve realised that sewing the top closed is actually one of the most important parts! It’s the key to getting a beanie that sits nicely on your head 🙂 (and it’s also why that for this beanie pattern you can leave off the pom pom and have a plain beanie that has a store-bought look to it!)

Video Tutorial

Materials

Yarn – WeCrochet Swish Worsted – 10ply/Worsted/Medium (4), 100m/50g, 110 yds/1.75oz, 100% Merino

Adult Small: Light Grey Beanie (dove heather) + Grey-Brown Beanie (squirrel heather)
Child: Light Teal Blue Beanie (wonderland heather)
Baby: Dark Green Beanie (rainforest heather)

Beanie: approx. 30(40, 55, 65, 75, 90, 105)g
8cm/3” Pom Pom: approx. 20g
10cm/4” Pom Pom: approx. 35g

4.5mm Crochet Hook

Darning Needle

Scissors

Optional: (6.5cm/2 ½”) or (8.5cm/3 ⅜”) Pom Pom Maker
You can also find a How to use a pom pom maker tutorial!

Stitches & Abbreviations

Ch = Chain

Sl st = Slip Stitch

HDC = Half Double Crochet

BLO = Back Loop

St(s) = Stitch(es)

RS = Right Side

WS = Wrong Side

Measurements (cm/inches):

To fit head circumference:

Preemie: 30cm / 12”
Baby: 35cm /14”
Toddler: 41cm / 16”
Child: 46cm / 18”
Tween: 51cm / 20”
Adult Small: 56cm / 22”
Adult Large: 61cm / 24”

GAUGE: 10cm/4” square = 16 stitches wide x 13 rows tall in half double crochet

Assembly

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