My first hairpin lace crochet projects have been exactly the kind of basic ones that are in all the introductory descriptions and YouTube videos. Naturally I’m curious about what else is possible—especially ideas that are different than anything else I’ve seen.

One idea that’s captured my imagination: making gentle wedges (rather than the standard strips that are perfectly parallel) and joining them vertically to make a beanie-style hat. The wider parts will form the main part of the hat and the narrow parts will form the crown.

I have four ideas in mind:

1. Make a wedge-shaped loom. There’s nothing especially difficult about making the loom (it will mostly just require the holes to be drilled at an angle), but it will take some precision while doing the crocheting itself to keep the angle consistent; the angle would undermine the usual ability to slide the work up or down as needed. I think the loom will have to be the full length I want the panels to be + room for flipping the hook so that no scooching is required.
2. Make double-length strips and join each to itself in a way that makes the strip variable-width. This YouTube video shows something that might make this practical.
3. Crunch up the top of the strips to make them angle. This is similar to the previous idea, but might be more or less steep. There are lots of examples of making hairpin lace strips curve by joining many loops together, and I think doing this selectively at the top might give me the shape I need to form the hat’s crown.
4. Use straight strips but vary the joins to make them tighter. I’ve noticed joining with a three-strand join uses more of the loops’ width than a single-strand join. This is a slightly more subtle version of the previous idea, and may work better with narrower strips than wider ones (because the difference between the width of the joins will make up a greater proportion of the total strip width).

Time for some proof-of-concept experiments!