I totally got this idea from a really old book of crochet afghans around at Auntie Pat's. The afghan was made in classic Nanna style with roses cross stitched into black in feature blocks on the afghan.
I've never been a big fan of double (US single) crochet because of the Aida like appearance of the cloth. Now I've found a reason to love it.
Never one to do things by halves the x's are all over the place.
The hat was constructed using a formula(!) & some fancy folding too. Amazingly, it fits the cute as a button kid it was gifted to. I just have to make sure that it wasn't a fluke & make another to test the theory & then I'll share it with you.