Ponytail hat with reflective accents

 I was able to do some actual crafting, today!  I decided to crochet a ponytail hat, using the reflective thread my husband found for me, as an accent.

The yarn is Accent Brights from "Knit and Purl: Purveyors of Fine Yarn".  It's a 100% acrylic yarn produce in Turkey for Aldi.  My husband bought a case of it, each package containing 2 of 4 colours, to knit with, not noticing that it was a light weight yarn, when he wanted a medium weight yarn.  So I've been using it more than he has!

This hat was worked with two strands of yarn, plus the reflective thread, using a 6mm, or J/10, hook.  The design is about as basic as it gets.  I started with 8sc around a magic ring, then alternated rounds of double crochet and single crochet for the crown and body of the hat.  The reflective yard was used only in the single crochet rounds.  The body of the hat is 68 stitches around.

In this shot, you can see the hole for the pony tail to be pulled through.  It was made in a single crochet round by chaining 5 and skipping 5 stitches.  The next double crochet round was worked into, rather than around, the chain stitches.

The brim of the hat is just 4 rounds of single crochet.

I then wasted a bunch of yarn trying to make a pom pom, which I almost never do with my hats, on a pom pom maker, using templates from the card that each package of yarn came with.  The templates are basically circles, with a chunk missing.  The instructions said to wrap the yarn around the two, back to back templates, until the card could no longer be seen.  Then the wrapped yarn would be cut by sliding the scissors between the templates.  Yarn could then be wrapped around the middle to tie it off, and the templates removed.

Except that as soon as I started cutting the wrapped yarn, it basically started falling apart.  I even tried to thread the yarn to tie it off with, in between the templates and try and salvage the uncut wraps, but ended up cutting the tying yarn by accident.  So I ended up just using a rectangle of light cardboard, folded in half, with the tying yarn tucked across in the fold.  Once I was done wrapping, using up the last of the yarn, I tied it off, removed the cardboard, secured the tying yarn some more, then cut the loops.  It's looser and floppier than I originally wanted, but it works.  After trimming the cut ends to make them neat and even, I used a crochet hook to draw the two lengths of tying yarn through the top of the hat, then just tied it off on the inside with a shoelace knot.  This way, the pom pom can be easily removed for washing.  I'm pretty sure it would fall apart completely if it went through the wash!

The finished hat has a cozy stretch to it, and is comfortable to wear.  I plan to give it as a gift.  I hope the planned recipient likes it!

A bit of an update, plus a teaser

So things are quiet here on the blog, which means that things are busy out in real life!

There are a few things in the works.  Among them is that I will be working towards getting my domain name and a web host to move away from blogger.  Not a big hurry on that right now, though, as those real life things still need to be taken care of.  One of those is to replace our van, which has died a glorious death, but only after getting me safely home.  I already miss my Lulubelle!  We depended on that vehicle a lot.  Unfortunately, getting a replacement we can afford has turned out to be more difficult than expected.  We need to stick with getting a van, as we need something that can fit all four of us, plus his walker, and it tall enough for him to get up into.  A smaller vehicle is much more painful for him to get into and sit in.

Enter my wonderful daughter.  She has been focusing on her art online a lot more.  She's started up a Patreon account, her new web comic, Borrowed Bones, is now live, and she is still taking commissions.

She has told me that all proceeds from her commissions will go towards acquiring another van.

You can see her rates, with samples, here.

You can also follow her tumblr posts here.

You can also get her art printed onto various things at her Redbubble shop.  I've got "All Sun Dappled" on a tote bag and phone cover, and I just love the quality of the products, as well as how well her art looks on it.  My younger daughter got "Darkening the Stars" on a phone case and "The Prophet" on a tank top.

Meanwhile, here is a sneak peak at one of my newest hats, which will go onto my Etsy shop, Treasures Down the Road, as soon as I can take some decent photos ready. The photo does not do justice to how incredibly sparkling it is!  And so comfortable to wear, too!

I'm working on another one that's going to be even more sparkling, with metallic strands and sequins.  It's going to be awesome!

Check it out!

A simple hat made with the new Reflective yarn, first with no flash and regular incandescent lighting, then in a dark room and a flash.
This stuff is pretty dramatic! 
It was also decent to work with, though some care needs to be taken not to catch the reflective strand.  We shall see how it handles wear and washing.

Sent from Anna's phone

The eyes...

... are a little wonky.
Sent from Anna's phon

Green Crocodile Hat

With all the stuff that's been going on, I have actually managed to crochet things every now and then!

For some time, I've wanted to make a hat with crocodile stitch, but I didn't like how a lot of the hats I saw looked at the top.  Worked from the bottom up, the number of stitches needs to be reduced at the top to close it up.  In the process, the evenly overlapping stitches around the body of the hat no longer line up nicely, and I wanted to keep that look.

I've made a couple of hats and this is a version I finished today, which ended up becoming a birthday gift for a neighbour who just turned 11. 



This just happens to be the front of the hat as my daughter put it on - there is no actual front or back to it.



I worked a couple of complete rounds of crocodile stitch, then slowly reduced the number of scales in each round.

As I started reducing stitches at the top, I did the last row of crocodile stitch scales with half double instead of double stitches.



I do like the all-over scales side.



You can sort of see how I reduced the number of stitches as I worked the crown, as well as the one section of crocodile stitches in half doubles.

I'm rather pleased with the look.  I will still likely tweak the design here and there as I make my next one.

The yarn I used is Loops & Threads Elegance, which is a new yarn available at Micheals only, and a 5.00mm hook.  At 160yds/147m, it took one and a bit balls of yarn to do this hat.  The yarn is 100% acrylic, yet has the feel of a cashmere blend yarn I have!  I just love it.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part ten

Here's another hat using the Carons Simply Soft yarn. 



I wanted to do something with this diamond pattern.  The diamonds require a base that's divisible by 8, but I didn't want to do my usual crown in solid single or double crochet, so I experimented with something more open and ended up using a series of V stitches and shells.  I'm rather pleased with how it turns out.  The diamond pattern makes for a hat that's more decorative then warming, though!

More photos here. 

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part nine

Micheals Canada has finally started to carry Carons Simply Soft yarn - it's something that had been available in the US, and many of the patterns I have for my classes use it.  Quite a few other patterns I've got use it as well, so I was glad to finally be able to get it at a reasonable price.   Of course, that meant picking some of to try it out.



This is a hat pattern I'd come up with a few years back, using a bulky yarn.  I wanted to revisit it with a medium weight yarn, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I'm definitely liking the Simply Soft, and can see why it's used in so many patterns.

More photos here.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part eight

I wanted to make a very open, almost lacy hat, but with a bit more structure.  This is actually a modification of a hat pattern I use in one of my classes.



It was made using Waverly for Bernat.  I really like this yarn.  It has excellent feel and drape.

More photos here.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part seven

I picked up the free pattern for the Vision Hat some time ago and made a couple of hats with it, but didn't touch it again until recently.  I wanted to make a vertical hat for a change, so I dug it up again. 



I used the heavier Loops & Threads Haze yarn this time, having bought out the last of the stock when it went on clearance at the Michaels I teach at.  I believe it's discontinued.

I didn't change the recommended hook, so it's a lot tighter then the original design.  I thought it might be too stiff, but it isn't.  It's nice and cozy, though!

More photos here.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part six

This next hat was an experiment for me in a couple of ways.  First, it was the first time I used Patons Classic Wool.  I've been avoiding wools since I had a reaction to some wool yarn I'd worked with a few years back, though I think I may have been reacting to the dye, not the wool.  I had no problems at all working with this yarn, and it was really pleasant to stitch with.





My other experiment was with the pattern.  I wanted to play around with cables - moving them around and crossing them, but had no idea what, so I made this up as I went along.  I rather like how it turned out.  I've found myself playing around with cables a lot more often of late.  They're rather fun!

More photos here.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part five

Here is a heavier yarn version of the granny rounds hat.




It was made using a cotton yarn I usually don't use for wearables.  It's quite comfortable and heavier; perfect for cool summer evenings.

More views here.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part four

Some time ago, while riding the bus, a man got on wearing a light crochet hat made with the same 3dc clusters as in a granny square.  Remembering that,  I decided to experiment with working granny rounds to make a hat, and succeeded.  Here's one version.





Once again, I used Patons Lace, Sachet.  It's a great yarn for this sort of thing - though it's not one you want to be making any mystakes in, because catches like crazy if you have to rip it!

Visit my flickr page for more photos.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part three

I wanted to make some simple, light hats that were more unisex, and this is one version.



It's another simple mesh, again in Patons Lace, this time in Sachet.  It's a lot looser then most hats I make, and so light, you can hardly tells it's there!

More photos here.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part two

When I was asked to share a booth with my older daughter during Art in the Plaze, one of the things I noticed about my inventory is that it was mostly winter or cool weather stuff.  With temperatures soaring in the 25C range, I figured making some lighter, summer hats would be a good idea.




Doesn't Ferdinand look lovely?  This is a fairly simple mesh hat with a hyperbolic accent.  The yarn here is Paton's Lace, Patina.  I'm really liking the slow colour gradient in these yarns.




The hyperbolic accent is worked up the "seam" of turning chains, giving it a gradual swirl.  There's about as much yarn in the accent as there is in the entire hat.  Possibly more.


You seen see other photos of it at my flickr page.

Catching up on my crocheted projects, part one

With how busy things have been over the summer, I haven't kept on top of posting photos of my finished crochet projects.  I'll be catching up on that for the next while.

The first batch will be of various hats I made.  Ferdinand got quite a bit of a work out for these photos.  The rest, I'm going to have to get my kids to model for me, as I don't have a torso or arm to go with my head.

 

First up is an all-over front and back post hat with earflaps.  Visit this link for other angles.

I've made a version of this hat before and wanted to revisit it.  I tweeked where I did the increases, and this time I used Bernat Mosaic yarn.  The post stitches makes it quite dense and warm, and I'm quite happy with how it looks.  My younger daughter promptly claimed it for herself, and I've posted a photo of her wearing it while she kept me company during my last Open House. :-D
 

Experimenting - peaked hat with novelty yarn embellishments.

After working up the pixie hat, there were a few things I wanted to try out.  Digging around my stash, I found a large skein of worsted weight yarn that would be more than enough for another hat.

This time, I went with a 5.50mm hook and worked in a spiral.  I still worked with a base 6, doing 2 sc, 2 hdc and 2 dc into the magic ring.  After that, I worked in dc stitches until near the end.

Like the pixie hat, I added 3 stitches to each increase round, but kept 2 rounds without any increases in between each increase round.  Using a stitch marker to keep track of the rounds was a necessity.  I also staggered where the increases were worked in the rounds.  The result was a very even, cone shaped peak.



In this back view, you can see where some of the increase rounds were done, as there is a bit of  a "step" visible.



The downside of working in only one stitch is that it gets very boring.  So when I got it to head width and started working only rows without increases, I started throwing in some cables by doing front post triple crochet for three rounds.

The next part is completely covered by the novelty yarn.  I wanted to make a different sort of brim.  After doing a round in just dc after the cables, I worked an increase round in sc, then a couple more rounds of sc without any increases.  For the last round, I flipped this "brim" up and worked the sc into the body of near the cable stitches.  This gave it a sort of roll for a brim.

I had intended to stop there, but it looked really unfinished.  I dug around my stash and found a novelty yarn with blues in it and decided to figure something out.  It's a very thin yarn, so I used a much smaller hook (a 3.50mm, I think) and did several rounds of sc around the posts of the stitches on the outside of the rolled brim until it was completely covered.  The "pom pom" at the tip is actually a bunch of chain loops in alternating sizes.

When my daughter first tried it on and did this...



... I had sudden images of the same hat made with bright red yarn for the body and white fun fur or eyelash yarn for the embellishment for a crocheted Santa hat!  A good thing to try with felting yarn, perhaps.

I think the colours on this one definitely challenged the pixie hat for the fugliest hat I've ever made.  LOL

As I was working the cone shaped peak, it occurred to me that, with some minor adjustments, it would make a great Thanksgiving cornucopia.  In basket weave stitch, of course.

After this hat, I got really silly.  More on that in my next post!

Experimenting - a pixie hat, first attempt

For the girls and I, one of our favorite routines is our trips to the library.  We try to go at least once a week, though we've been known to go considerably more often some weeks, not at all on others.  It's an enjoyable walk of a few blocks to the main branch.  Part of our routine includes seeing what's new in the small art gallery with its rotating display from local artists and craft guilds.  We usually finish up by visiting the Second Cup, just off the gallery.

This place is filled with some of the most interesting people, including the employees.  I often bring my project bag and do a bit of crochet while the girls and I have our drinks and chat.  I've even left the odd cup cozie behind for the staff.  One of our favorite staff members has a unique style all her own, with awesome dreadlocks and funky clothes.  I discovered she was interesting in learning how to crochet flowers, like what I made here.  So when I had the chance, I caught her before her shift and chatted with her about what she was looking to learn.  I couldn't help but notice the fascinating crocheted peak hat with floppy brim she was wearing at the time.

The hats I usually make are a basic form with variations.  Whether I work top-down or bottom-up, crown is usually flat or nearly flat, the sides are straight, and I would add either some sort of ribbing or a brim around the forehead.  Any manner of stitch variations can be used on the basic form to make it unique an interesting, but every now and then, I want to experiment with different shapes.

I wasn't quite going to try and recreate the peaked hat I was inspired by, but it did get me to thinking about the shape.  In visiting Ravelry and seeing some of the patterns there, I've recently seen quite a few new hats showing up, and that they were called pixie hats.

How appropriate.  It turns out the lovely young lady who's hat inspired me is named Pixie!

So here is my first experiment in a pixie hat.  While having a Star Trek marathon with my younger daughter, I dug out an incomplete skein of worsted weight yarn I had no plans for. I knew there wasn't enough yarn to finish what I had in mind, so I dug out a couple of small balls in pink and purple I had left over from who knows where.  This being a total experiment, with rather garish colours, I had no real thought of it actually being worn by anyone.  I finished this hat in a single evening - it took about 3 1/2 episodes of Star Trek.



My daughter insisted I get a shot with the tail sticking up! 



I worked the hat in rounds - the seam is just to the left of centre in this photo - and using a larger hook to start with.  A 6.50mm hook, if I remember correctly.  I started with a magic circle of 6 dc.  (All but the very last round are done in dc.)  I increased the next round by 3 stitches, then, then did 2 rounds without any increases.  I repeated that pattern of working one increase round (increasing by 3 stitches to the round) followed by two rounds without any increases for a while, then started doing the increases every second round until I got it to a length where I wanted to make the head portion.  There I evenly worked in more increases in each round until I eventually got it to 70 stitches.  As the variegated yarn was running low, I started adding in rounds in pink, then eventually added in rounds in purple as I worked the 70 stitch rounds for the head portion.

When I got the head portion deep enough, I switched to a smaller hook (a 5.00mm, if I believe - as you can tell, I wasn't too interested in recreating this exactly) for the brim portion.  I added enough increases evenly around the hat to create a bit of a ruffle and kept that up for a few more rounds.  The very last round was done in sc with no increases at all.



Personally, I think it's the ugliest hat I've ever made! LOL  My daughter, however, loves it.  Yes, she wears this in public! LOL  The next day, she wore it when we took her guitar in to get the neck adjusted.  The guy who worked on it complimented her on the hat.  When she mentioned I'd made it while we watched a Star Trek marathon, he ended up telling us about the Toy and Comic Show that was happening the next day.  We even ended up exchanging names so we could add each other to our facebook friends lists, but it turns out we both have our security settings too high - he couldn't find me when he tried to look me up on their computer in the store, and I couldn't find him when I got home and looked him up.  Ah, well!  I'll just have to meet up with him again at the store.

After getting her guitar fixed, my daughter and I went for lunch in the mall this store was at.  Walking back through the mall later on, she heard someone going by in the other direction call out "stupid hat!"

She just laughed at him and proudly kept wearing it!

Y'know, when I was her age, I wouldn't have had the guts to wear this (and I did wear some pretty unusual things back then - usually involving chains).  If I did manage to wear something this outlandish and someone said something like that, I would have been humiliated.  My daughter is a lot stronger and more self-assured than I was at her age!

So this is my first experiment with a pixie hat.  I think it looks a lot like a trumpet shaped flower - like a Morning Glory - turned upside down.

After finishing it, I could think of a few things I'd change about it (I mean, besides the colours... LOL).  I'd worked in rounds, which left a seam, and I figured working in a spiral would be better.  I thought about different ways to change the shape as well.

My kids are saying I should make another one like this, except with a much longer "tail."  They even want me to use garish, variegated colours again, too!

Well, I didn't make another one quite like this, but I did play around with the idea some more, which I will write about in my next post.

Earwarmer hat with simple matching neckwarmer

The hat in this set has a few minor changes to my basic pattern.  The yarn used is Bernat Denimstyle in Sweatshirt, and I used a larger than recommented 6.00mm hook.



The body of the hat was worked in alternating rounds of dc and sc stitch.  I changed my basic hat pattern of a flat disc for the crown by doing the usual increases in the sc rounds, but no increases in the dc rounds.  The sides are just alternating rounds of sc and dc, ending on a sc round.




The ribbing was done by doing a round of dc stitches, then alternating front post double crochet (fpdc) with back post double crochet (bpdc) for a couple of rounds.  Then I started working back and forth for the earflap portion, ending the rows with a fpdc.  Each consecutive round started and finished with a hdc intead of a dc, and skipping stitches at the start and end to reduce each round.  When the earwarmer portion was as deep as I wanted, I worked sc around the entire hat to finish it.




The neckwarmer is just rounds of dc worked from a foundation chain long enough to go around the head, but not so long it gaped a lot at the neck.  I never counted how many stitches that was.  It's wide enough to be pulled up over the nose and mouth and still cover most of the neck.

This is a good hat and neckwarmer set for cooler weather, but it won't cut any wind.  For windy days and colder temperatures, it works great layered under a hood.

Tunisian in the round - Purple Swirls hat

I wanted to do a variation of the bottom-up Tunisian hat I'd made before.  Part of what I wanted to do was see how far I could go with the Tunisian stitch decrease rounds before I had to stop using both ends of the hook and switch to regular crochet to close up the top.

For the yarn, I went with Bernat Alpaca in Plum and Lavender and worked with a 6.50mm double ended hook. 



I also wanted to make the hat larger than the first one I'd made, so I started with a base chain of 70 in the darker colour.  This photo is after about 5 rounds in Tunisian Simple Stitch.





A closer look at how the side was building up.






Though this is what I was actually working with.  The tight curl makes it quite the challenge to work with!  It also made it a challenge to judge when to start decreasing my rounds for the crown of the hat.  I wanted to make sure it was a deeper hat then previous, and had to keep resisting the urge to start the decrease rounds too early.






Here you can see the first few decreased rounds.  Since I started with 70 stitches, I worked the decrease stitches evenly in sevenths, so the first decreased round brought the stitch count down to 63, then 56, and so on.



 

I changed where I worked the decreased stitches compared to the first hat I'd made.  Instead of starting the new decrease in the same place as previous round's decrease, I started the decrease one stitch ahead of the previous decrease. ( I hope that makes sense!)  This caused the distinctive swirl to form in the opposite direction from the previous design.

I was also quite surprised to be able to work the Tunisian stitch pretty much to the end.  By that point, I was switching back and forth on the ends of my hook every couple of stitches.  The final bit was closed up while sewing in the yarn ends to finish them off.

For some reason I can't remember anymore (I actually finished this some 3 months ago), I didn't take any step by step photos of the rest.  Oops.

While the body of the hat was worked in a spiral, the base was worked in joined rounds, using only one end of my double ended hook.  The first round was just single crochet into the remaining loops of the foundation chain, working from the outside of the hat.





This view shows the transition from working the body of the hat in a spiral from the foundation chain to joined rounds, where it looks a bit like a bump.






After joining the first round of single crochet, I turned the piece to work from the inside for the double crochet bobbles.  The bobbles are 3 double crochet together, separated by one double crochet.  After joining the round I turned to work from the outside again and worked three rounds of single crochet, with the lighter purple in the middle round, without turning until the end of the third round of single crochet.  Another round of bobble stitches was worked from the inside, then the last round was done in single crochet from the outside.






That last round of single crochet pulls the edge in quite nicely, making for a snug and comfortable fit. 

I'm quite happy with this version.

Surface braid hat and cowl set

Time to go back to some pieces I made before taking our Christmas season break.

First up, a matching hat and Moebius cowl set.  The hat is inspired by one I saw on Ravelry.  The free pattern and an instructional video on how to do the surface braid stitch is available at The Laughing Willow.



I didn't follow the pattern on the site, but worked it using the same basic pattern I use for most of my hats.  The crown is a flat disk (I started with 8 hdc in the ring) worked in a spiral, then when it got to the diameter I wanted, I stopped increasing to do the sides.




The cowl is done in the same surface braid stitch (which is just a half-double crochet worked into a bar on the back of the previous stitches, instead of the top loops).  I don't know that I even counted how many stitches were in the foundation chain; I just worked the chain until it was long enough to fit around the neck as close as I wanted it to, then closed it up with the Moebius twist and worked as many rows in surface braid stitch as it took to get the width I wanted.

The twist can be moved to the back so that the cowl can be worn over the face to better protect from the elements.



When finishing off the ends in the hat, I made sure to hide them well so that the hat is reversible.  You can see what the inside texture looks like in the bottom half of the cowl.

This stitch makes for an amazingly stretchy and flexible fabric, and is very comfortable to wear.  I think it's a stitch I'll be using a lot more often.