Throwback Thursday - A Beanie

Good morning readers! I have found that I enjoy crafting for National Hat Month. Perhaps it is the oncoming chilly weather that makes me long for something to cover my head and back. What I know is that I hardly crochet for myself and this "celebration" allows me to be a little selfish and add a new beanie to my collection.

This week, I wanted to share one of the hats I created previously. It is a pretty simple hat, but here goes:

It's called the interchangeable beanie. The flower is removable, which means you can have one beanie and any number of embellishments that can be changed at any time. I thought it worked with someone who changed their colors very often. I will say that this blue and green doesn't go well together, but it does draw your eyes to the flower.

In hindsight, I would have made the beanie black or white and created a myriad of colors with the flower or other such embellishments.

What's your favorite hat?

Sarah

Make it Monday - Ridge Hat with Brim

Hello readers! I announced yesterday that this week's theme is National Hat Month. In honor of this month, I have chosen to crochet a beanie to add to my collection. The pattern comes from a blog called Stitch of Love. The owner of this blog has been quiet since 2013; however, the free patterns are still available to use on this blog. Here's the link to my project: Ridge Hat with Brim.

With this, I need to make a note. I will not put the instructions to this beanie on my blog. It is not my pattern. You must follow the link above by clicking the words Ridge Hat with Brim to have the pattern.

Materials:
Worsted Weight yarn  - I used Caron One Pound Baby in Denim
Size H hook
Yarn needle
Stitch Marker (optional)

I know that the pattern and Stitch of Love uses a different set of materials to accomplish the goal. I have issues using smaller yarn, so I went with what was comfortable. Like with any pattern, I chose to accomplish it in a way that fits my body and how I crochet. Crochet is so versatile. Given that I have crocheted MANY hats and beanies over the years, I found this one more hands on with the clusters and front post double crochet. Yet, it turned out so beautifully.

There were a few changes to the pattern that I had to do to make it fit. First, I ended up stopping at Row 6 of the flat circle to make it fit my head properly. I have a smaller adult head. It is important to make the hats fit your head instead of following a pattern and not be able to use it.

The second change I made was subtracting one row of the body to ensure my eyes were not covered up by the brim.  And that leads me to my third change. I ended up removing rows 1, 2 and 5 from the brim. It was too long to fit my head. I didn't mean to skip 1 and 2, but I miscalculated. It worked for my head, so that's a plus.

Here's the work in progress. This is working on the brim.

This is the finished product.

I thought about putting a braid around the brim with a flower, but I kind of like it plain. The original pattern comes with a huge flower to put on the side, but I absolutely LOVE Bonita flower patterns.

One thing I did notice with the pattern had some numerical issues where the stitch count did not add up in the beginning of a new row as it does the rest. For instance, in the brim the pattern designer has a 4 stitch count in the first section of row 1 and has a 5 stitch count in the second section. I corrected this on my own hat as that removes some stitches.

Overall, I love the pattern. As I was crocheting it, I thought of tulips and other spring-y patterns. I bet if you wanted, you could turn it into a basket by stopping at Row 7 on the body and putting a handle.

Happy Crafting,

Sarah

Throwback Thursday - A Rose by any other name....

This week, in honor of Mother's day, I am sharing with you my first crocheted rose. I inserted a pipe cleaner and wrapped it in a green yarn to create the stem. If I had to do it over again, I would probably use a wooden dowel instead of a pipe cleaner. It would be sturdy.

As you can see the pipe cleaner shows. I used Caron Simply Soft and that might have caused it. It wasn't wrapping very well!

Happy Mother's Day to All the Mother's out there

Sarah