Crochet version of Jayne Cobb's hat from Firefly - Free pattern tips and notes

Crochet Jayne Cobb Hat

Ever since I learned how to crochet my darling husband has been begging me for a hat just like Jayne Cobb got from his mom in the TV series Firefly. Since we were traveling for vacation and I needed a small project to travel with I thought, "why not?! I'll finally make this hat he wants!" Granted the hat Jayne wears in Firefly is actually knitted, not crocheted you can still yield a similar hat.  I made a few tweaks to the hat pattern just based on what I thought looked good for the hat and how it looked on my husband.

The pattern is super easy and I just so happened to have the right colors on hand. You really don't need much of all three colors, but I had just a little of orange so I just used a little more of the yellow. The number of rows for the orange and yellow really don't matter, but I'll break down what I did for my Jayne Cobb hat.

The only space traveling creature I could find to model the hat. Good job Alf!

Yarn used (again, one skein will produce you numerous Jayne hats):

• Red Heart with Love Daffodil (for the yellow)
• Red Heart Super Saver Carrot (for the orange)
• Red Heart with Love Berry Red (for the red)

Tip: I recommend you practice making a hat with scrap yarn before starting on this project. Also when I make a hat I use the "nearly invisible seam" pattern.

Pattern & Notes:
With your yellow color: To start a hat use a magic ring or chain four (I tend to chain rather than just the magic ring because I can never remember how to do the magic ring). Slip stitch in to the first chain to make your hat ring.
Round 1: Chain three (this does not count as a stitch), then do ten double crochets into the ring. Slip stitch into the top of the first double crochet in your magic ring.
Round 2: Chain three (again this does not count as a stitch because when you slip stitch into the top the first double crochet you are covering this chain three **video tutorial on how to do this**). In the same chain three stitch do two double crochets, then in every stitch after that you will do two double crochets. You should have twenty double crochet stitches. Slip stitch into the top of the first double crochet in that round.
Round 3: Chain three, and in the same stitch do two double crochets. In the next stitch only do one double crochet. In the next stitch do two double crochets - you will continue on this pattern of one double then two double till you have thirty stitches. (The hat increases by multiples of ten). Slip stitch into the top of the first double crochet in that round.
Round 4: Chain three, and in the same stitch do two double crochets. In the next two stitches only do one double crochet in each, then do two double crochets in the following stitch. Essentially the pattern is two double crochets in one stitch and then one double crochet in the following two stitches. And slip stitch into the top of the first double crochet in that round to join.
Round 5: Chain three, in the same stitch do two double crochets, then one double crochet in the next three stitches, and repeat this pattern (two in one and one in the next three) till you get all the way around and slip stitch into the first double crochet of that round to join.
Tip -- when you do two double crochets in the same stitch this is known as "increasing" which is what I making your circle get bigger.
Round 6: Chain three, in the same stitch do two double crochets, then one double crochet in the next four stitches, and repeat this pattern (two in one and one in the next four) till you get all the way around and slip stitch into the first double crochet of that round to join.
At this round if the space warrior you are making the hat for has a small head then skip to the directions below. If they have a little larger head continue to the next round.
Round 7: Chain three, in the same stitch do two double crochets, then one double crochet in the next five stitches, and repeat this pattern (two in one and one in the next five) till you get all the way around and slip stitch into the first double crochet of that round to join.
At this round if the Serenity smuggler you are making the hat for has a medium sized head then skip to the directions below. If they have a larger head continue to the next round (this was my husband's case)
Round 8: Chain three, in the same stitch do two double crochets, then one double crochet in the next six stitches, and repeat this pattern (two in one and one in the next six) till you get all the way around and slip stitch into the first double crochet of that round to join.

So now you are done making the crown of the circle (again depending on what round you stop on depends on the size of your Serenity mercenary's head). If you have to rip out your stitches later to make it larger or smaller don't despair! Crochet goes quickly and all errors can be fixed easily.

At this point you might consider switching to the orange color and that is up to you, but since I had a little less than the yellow I just kept with yellow for the next following rounds.



My other, but more unwilling model, our giant space sheltie Duke.

For the next 5 rounds (decrease to four if you went to round 8 as stated above) you will chain three, do one double crochet in the same stitch as your chain three, then do one double crochet in ever stitch after that then joining the round with a slip stitch into the top of the first double crochet.

What this does is create the sides of your hat - now it'll start to look like a hat! Feel free to change to the orange color at any point in time, but here's what I did:

For the next 6 rounds switch to the orange color if you haven't already. This will conclude the base of your hat.


Close up of the smaller ear flaps I made. They can be made bigger! Just follow the directions!

Next we will switch to the ear flaps. You will find that you want your ear flaps to be closer to the seam rather than be equal distance apart. So I counted ten stitches away from the seam and made the first ear flap. To do so, I did one row of about 14 single crochets (although I'd use double if I got to go back and redo it because it would make the ear flaps longer) and did that for about four rows, and chain one to when you turn your work, before I started decreasing my stitches (again, if you want to make the ear flaps longer just do another row or two - I made mine shorter because I thought it looked better for my project and personal Independence fighter).

For the decrease (tapering the ear flaps) you will first do a single crochet (or double crochet) together which is printed in patterns at sc2tog or dc2tog and I have linked two tutorials to those decreases. But back to the pattern, for row 5 do a decrease stitch, in my cause I did a single crochet together, then single crochets across until I get to the last two stitches. Then again, in the last two stitches, do a single crochet together. Turn your work, chaining one and repeat the decreasing process above. I repeated this process until I had two stitches left at which point I cut my yarn leaving a 4 to 6 inch tail and pulled through my last stitch to finish it off. I also tied a knot in the tail so it wouldn't ravel.

For the ear flap tails, the picture shows multiple strands, but I only did one. It's up to you!

The next ear flap was tricky to figure our the distance so I called the husband into the room and found that I needed to count 12 stitches from the seam to make the next ear flap. Repeated the process above and then it's time to make the pom pom.

A good tip I've heard is to trim up the pom pom because the shorter the yarn the more "poofy" it looks.

I have never made a pom pom so I went to the interwebs to learn how! This blog has great pictures and explains wonderfully how to make a pom pom. But my tips for this hat is to take all three stands of yarn in your hand at once and wrap them over your hand multiple time -- the more the better! I used a bit of yellow yarn since that is the color used where the pom pom will be secured. 



Pom pom on the Jayne hat.

I'm still playing with how to secure the pom pom properly, but the website I cited above may prove to be helpful with that.

Once your yarn tails are sewn in (not the tails of the ear flaps though) you will have a hat perfect for a Canton hero. Fun and EASY project for nerds alike! Enjoy!