Roadie Crochet Beanie - Free Pattern
Last year in June 2025 I travelled to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland to attend the Crochet Guild Australia 2025 Crochet Convention. I designed a simple crochet slouchy fit hat design using one 100g skein of 8ply/DK yarn to work on while I was on “the road”. Hence this design was named the “Roadie Crochet Beanie”. Once I returned home, I decided to refine the design further to use the crochet short row technique to prevent bunching and to make closing up the crown a very simple process.
This pattern is a great way to learn the crochet short row technique which is a very useful method to have in your skill set if you’re interested in making fitted garments, such as sweaters, hats and socks.
Made sideways in 8 wedges, the Roadie Crochet Beanie is an easy beginner friendly crochet hat with zero bunching at the crown using short rows.
Each wedge takes approx. 28mins to complete. Whole beanie will take approx. 4 hours to complete.
Visit my Ravelry page to download the free pattern PDF.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/roadie-crochet-beanie
I typed out a rough pattern outline on my phone notes app while I was waiting to board my outgoing flight at Adelaide Airport and started hooking on the plane. I had a wonderful time at the Crochet Convention meeting other designers, teachers and makers (I will write a separate blog post about the Crochet Convention another time) but it was nice to slip away from the crowd a few times to sit quietly by myself and get abit of peaceful stitching time. I finished the beanie while I was waiting for my final flight homeward from Melbourne Airport back to Adelaide. While I was filming I found that closing the crown was messier and fiddlier than I would like so I made a note to reexamine my finishing technique at a later date. It wasn’t until the 2026 Wollongong Crochet Convention started nearing that I remembered about the beanie! I pulled up my notes app to check my pattern details and found I had somehow deleted it. Super annoying! But then I realised this gave me an opportunity to completely rewrite the crown shaping using the short-row technique so the beanie had zero bunching. This meant closing up the crown was super easy and had satisfyingly smooth finish. Then ofcourse I felt compelled to make the regular and fold-over brim variations. I find myself reaching for the fold-over fit variation most of the time.
Video tutorials for the crochet short row technique and how to close the crown are linked in the pattern but can also be seen on the Video Tutorials page on my website.
Roadie Crochet Beanie - Regular, Slouchy and Fold-over brim fit
I had a fun time making the “POV You’re going on a road trip and you need a “Travel Project”” reel for the socials showing me working on the original beanie design while I was travelling. Posting it here for people to admire my work! My favourite bit is the very “Wes Anderson” scene when I was sliding the yarn across the counter at my local yarn store.
I hope everyone enjoys making this beanie! This is a free pattern but please do not reproduce, sell, or distribute this pattern or linked content, without express written permission from me! Finished items using this pattern can be sold or donated to charity as long as the pattern is attributed to Moonlighting Makes.
Visit my Ravelry page to download the free pattern PDF.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/roadie-crochet-beanie
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