Hat Size Chart - Find Your Right Size

Age is Not Factored Into Hat Sizes

For example, we are often asked about getting the correct sizes for children when a crocheter gives us an age. Kids don't grow evenly in height and body shape in a school classroom, and we adults, too, are different shapes and sizes.

Our Jeanne has taken the time to research general sizes for heads regarding hats. She has given the standards of typical sizes that the textile industry uses for the sizing across the spectrum. More importantly, she has given the dimensions of the age bracket to give crocheters a better understanding of what size patterns they should be looking at. In the olden days, I raised a young man with a massive head for his age. He eventually grew into his head, but he would have fit into an adult hat in his childhood, not a kids' hat.

If you take some measurements of the person you are making your hat for, you may find they are outside the typical textile industry. Knowing this information will allow you to adjust your pattern to the correct sizes so you are not crocheting something that ends up too big or too small.

Crown Size

The subsequent measurement is the hat crown size.  You want to measure your circle across and use the chart to determine when to stop increasing your circle and start working evenly.

Top Tip

Work it out if you are making your own hat or are concerned about the sizing. After you come out of a circle, you need to stop growing the hat and allow the stitches to stretch out. It takes several rounds for the curvature to appear. If you wait too long, the hat will be too big.

It will seem too small, but remember, your stitchwork has to relax as it's been compressed into a circle. Once you start going around without doing any more increased stitches, it will continue to get bigger.

Visualizing the Crowns

Below is a visualization of the crown of the hat's fullest growth of increased stitches before they start to wrap around the hat without any further increase.

It's difficult to believe that 5" across the hat's crown is enough, as it takes several rounds of just one stitch in each stitch for the diameter to stop growing fully.

Yes, that 5" turns into the size of the hat you see. Mikey's general rule, based on measurements, is that the finished hat is 10" across the diameter or 20" circumference. The 5" across the crown doubles its size.

It would be safe to assume that if the crown is 4" across, the finished hat will be 8" across and only 16" in circumference.

The difference in just one extra growth round will make or break the hat design.

Height of Hat

Here is another example of measuring the Hat's Height Size. On the chart, this fits me as an adult medium. If you start at the top of that hat, it's easily adjustable for height, as you can stop at any point to customize it for you.