I made these 3 hats today

I really wish I had the time to write down all the patterns for the hat designs I come up with.

Writing a pattern takes so much time, I can make 4 to 5 hats in the time it takes to write a pattern, I do get some patterns up on my blog, but not as many as I would like to.

Below are some pictures of 3 hats I designed in 1 day.

Pink with cream spike.
Cream wave.

Simple black ear flapper hat with a folded peak.

Childs HDC Ear Flap Hat Pattern

Finally another free pattern to share.

This hat is for a child from 4 to 10, but can fit a little loosely on a 2 yr old and firmly up to 14. I have had it on my head and it barely fits, my head size is an adults meduim to small.

The hat fits my 4 yr old grand son just perfect and was a little loose on my 2 yr old but he still looked good in it. I hope to have some pictures of them wearing the hats soon.
I also used a hook 1 size smaller, same ply yarn and made the hat to fit a baby 6 to 12 months old.

The hat is made with the hdc st and works up quite fast, I have included a video tutorial for the hdc st at the bottom of the page.

If you make this hat, I would love to hear your feed back.

Enjoy.

I put a small flower on each side of the pink hat and a couple of buttons on the blue hat.

In the picture below I used a 4mm hook with the same pattern directions, this fits a 2 yr old.

 
In the picture below, I am showing you what I am referring to in the pattern as the centre back st.

In the picture below, I am showing you where to sc twice when you make the edging for the hat.

My Grandson Used My Knitting Loom

Meet Darcy, my 7 year old grandson. I taught him how to use the knitting loom tonight. He found it relaxing (words from his mouth).

Unlike the his sister Lily, he soon became a little bored with the loom knitting about half the way through making his hat. So I wrapped the pegs and he lifted the stitches over, soon this eventually bored him too, it was not growing fast enough for him.

I was making something for myself on another loom, but I had to put that aside to finish Darcy's hat off. Darcy was getting a little tired at this stage so I had to go very fast to finish it.

Once it was off the pegs and sewed up, he stuck his fingers through the hat and said look Nan a monster, so we came up with the idea for a monster face to put on the hat.

Some buttons for eye's, a bit of sewing for the mouth and he had to have a mohawk too!
All just in time for bed time too! I'm sure we can add a little something extra tomorrow for more of a monster look. He has worn it to bed, because he says it is nice and warm.
I was really pleased Darcy took an interest in the loom, we have nintendo's, wii's and a playstation too, they all took a back seat to him being creative on the loom.
Well Done My Darcy boy!

Crochet Butterfly Hat's and Mitt's

I really like this trio set I made this week, I just discovered the butterfly mitt pattern that works up very well, I made some minor alterations because I was using thinner yarn.

A close up of the butterfly effect.

I've always believed any pattern can be used in a hat, so here is the butterfly effect in a hat too.

I sewed some small crystal beads onto the top of the butterfly for a minute touch of bling and class.

The hat is constructed of simple dc, beginning with 12 dc, increasing to 24, 36, 48 to 60, work a couple of rows straight then place the butterfly in a spot that suits you. I changed to hdc on the last row where I picked up the wings in the center part, giving the edge of the hat a little bit of firmness.

*UPDATE* UPDATE* ON THIS POST*

Seems I am not so original after all.
After surfing the net I came across a butterfly hat for a child. DOH!

Joining your Yarn

I found 2 quick video's of how to join yarn with 2 different methods. The first is a Russian join, which I use quite a lot, the only trouble with that way of joining is that you do have a thicker yarn where it has been joined.
The second method can only be used with wool or other animal fibers.

World Record for Most People Crocheting

Over 400 Mets fans set Guinness World Record for most people crocheting in the same place

More than 400 Mets fans set the Guinness World Record for most people crocheting simultaneously at Citi Field Saturday.
Most crafters - 427 in all - worked on a project in Mets-appropriate orange or blue yarn, establishing the record for most people crocheting in the same place for 15 minutes.
Crochet diva Lily Chin showed up ready to set the record in a homemade Mets uniform that she had knit herself, complete with a crocheted cap and even a mitt made out of yarn.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/06/2010-06-06_record_stitched_at_citi_field.html#ixzz0qN58z8Ya

Never too Young to Learn

My 10 year old grand daughter Lily and her friend Molly came to sleep over tonight. Molly was talking about her grade teaching French knitting and how confusing it was. I told her I could help her and bought out a loom. Blow me down they were both doing it in no time!

Lily's loom knitting.

Molly's loom knitting.

Lily is on the left and Molly on the right.

While they were loom knitting, I was making this hat.

On the move, Crochet Defrosted

Only a few hours previously I was at a stand still, I grabbed some yarn and my hook and began to crochet a hat with the bullion st at the beginning centre, I kept the bullion st going as I increased the rounds, but I got bored with doing the bullion st, so I frogged it and kept 1 round of the bullion st near the beginning. At one stage whilst I was still increasing the rounds of the hat, I stopped almost half way around to have a look and it gave me an idea to make a flap at the front that folded upward, so here it is below with a nice button on each side of the flap. I've seen similar before and liked them.

You can just make out the bullion st here on the top of the hat.

With this blue hat, I made a bit of a granny st in one of the increase rounds.

I crocheted a long band and sewed it around the blue hat and added a silver button.

These were both made with beginning 12 dc and increased in each round until 72 dc.
12-24-36-48-60-72.

I continued a few more rounds and changed the st to the up and down st, which gives a lovely closed decorative st.
When I made the front flap for the red hat, I finished off the hat and re-joined the yarn to the side of the hat and made the flap of 36 dc in the front loops so the flap turned upward, made about 4 rows of dc and left a long thread to sew the flap to the front of the cap.

Standing Still, Crochet Freeze.

The basket of left over yarn and labels sits next to my chair. I dropped a small pair of scissors a few weeks ago and finally found them buried in the basket. Don't throw any thing out before searching through it, you just never know.

I keep pulling out different varieties of yarn to come up with a new project. Go surfing on the internet for inspiration and I'm at a stand still.
Mind you I frogged some projects that I began.

What to do, what to do?

Does this happen to you?

Mikeyssmail Tutorials now Available on DVD!

Not only has Mikeyssmail made his first dvd tutorial for loom knitting, he is giving away 2 signed copies to bloggers world wide!

Go here for the competition.

I found Mikey a few weeks ago and was able to dust off and use my knitting looms for the very first time ever.

I am now constantly viewing and downloading Mikeys tutorials from youtube.

I would really love to be a winner of the DVD so I can just pop Mikey in my DVD player and learn from him with out turning on my computer, which is so slow due to it's age.

Post to Australia please :)

Knifty Knitter Speed Tip to Share

It's been less than a week since I learned to use the knifty knitter and I have made 4 scarves and 1 hat.

It can be that fast!

Below is a video showing the knifty knitter weave tool that speeds up the weaving process, but you can achieve the same results by using an empty pen/biro casing or even a straw.

Below is the empty pen/biro casing that I have been using to speed up the weaving process. I learnt this tip from Mikeyssmail video tutorials, he calls it a stylus pen, how stylish.

This is my latest scarf made on the rectangular knitting loom. The yarn I used is in the picture too. The length I have been making the scarves is 60 inches or so.

Correction, this is my latest scarf made on the knifty knitter, I made 2 in a day :)

Below is the yarn I used in the black scarf, it's so soft and fluffy!

Crocheted Sheet Music Scarf

Firstly I must point out that the idea for this scarf was not mine. I saw a sheet music scarf whilst surfing crochet on the internet, it did not have a pattern so I did re-create a similar one as shown here.

The scarf is done with a sc.

I did an image search on google for some sheet music to use as a guide for my scarf.

I chained 201 to begin the scarf. I did 6 rows of white, 1 black, 3 white, 1 black, until I had my 5 black bars and I finished with 6 rows of white.

I came across a little hiccup with my scarf. As you can see my edging is sloped. I tried the method of sc across the first row of ch and ended the row there leaving the end for a tassel. Then with out turning, I came back to the beginning sc on the right hand side and began my row again, I did this through out the scarf, working the one row with out turning from right to left, leaving the stragglers for tassels on each end. This method may have worked on a straight edge if I had sc in the back loops of the st's.

I tried this method as I had to guesstimate on the move where I would begin my black lines. But now in hind sight, I could have done it differently. I don't mind the effect here so it stays with this one.

I have never taken notice of how sheet music works or where the notes should be placed. So the best way to get a working guage of it, is to draw it for your self. This really does assist you. 

Next I made lengths of a sc foundation row, not a regular chain, this gives the notes more body. I simply made it a certain length and tried it onto the scarf in the shape of the note I was using, adjusting the length as needed. I had chosen 3 notes to work with.

I pinned my shape onto the scarf and re-positioned it several times until I was happy with it's placing.

Here I am sewing it into place.

I tried to make sure there was not much blue showing through the back side of the scarf.

And here is the finished scarf once again.

I do hope you like this, my next musical adventure will be the notes done in filet on a scarf too.

I'm finally using my knifty knitter!

I must admit I was quite apprehensive about using the knifty knitters. I gave it a try some time back and put it away. Gave it a try last night and put it away again, thought more about it, did some research and here is what I have achieved so far with the help of viewing, yes you guessed it more video tutorials from youtube!

I chose some thick medium that I was given some time back which was too difficult to crochet with and I added some pretty pink feathered medium to brighten up the pink.

I think it is looking great so far. I am making a scarf.

Below are the 2 video tutorials that will assist me in the completion of the scarf. It really is making up quite quickly now that I have the hang of it.

The first video shows you how to begin the scarf.

The second video shows you how to finish the scarf.

I really hope these video's help some one as much as they helped me, thank you to the producers of the video tutorials!

Update

Here are some progress shots and the finished scarf with a hat too!

Completed scarf.

Here is the hat about a third of the way in progress.

The hat coming off the knifty knitter ring.

The pair together, all in a days work!

I could not have achieved the both of these if it were not for the video tutorials supplied above.

Thank you Producers!

New stock and thinking out side of the box

When I was at the market I had so many requests for Black hats and berets.

So give the customer what they want, here are just a few I've made over the last 3 days.

I really want to point out the multi colour black,/grey beret here.

In my last post I included a video tutorial of a streamer crocheted hat, I used this method in the beret using plain black yarn and a feather black grey yarn, I am so pleased with the result. The feather yarn I used was a little bit of scrap I had left over too! Waste not want not, I dare not throw any bit of yarn away as you never know it may be the missing link in a project that I am working on!

I will include the streamer video once again.

Crochet Video Tutorials

I just love video tutorials!
By all means I am not taking the credit for any of the video links I have supplied. In fact I am so pleased to give the credit to those who have made them.
These video's take time, equipment, programs, dedication, more time and the generosity to share them all with us all.
Thank You to all the producers of these, I hope to return the favor one day.

I'm so excited about this first video, the stitch that is shown here is what I know as the griddle st or the up and down st. I make my neck warmers out of this st, but I do one extra thing! I include a ch 1, at the end of every row, I start with a sc and end with a dc as the video shows. My beginning ch row is 13 ch, skip first ch, sc, dc, sc dc, ending with the dc and ch 1 to step up to the next row.
By doing that 1 ch, I do not have to crochet a border around the neck warmer as the ch 1 keeps it nice and firm!
Lemon peel st.

This is the first time I have heard of Jacobs Ladder!
Enjoy.

Cat's In A Row.
I have a written pattern for this but thought it was way too difficult until I saw this video.

This video is showing the basket weave pattern, how ever I wanted to post it for the fpdc and bpdc instructions.
Front post double crochet, Back post double crochet.

Now that you have seen fpdc, try using the st in a cable, here is a video for the cable st.


I've never seen this st before either, just wondering how I could make it work in a hat.
Streamer crochet.

Oh no, wait for it, there is a hat pattern on youtube for the streamer crochet!

Well that is just a few for today, thank you to all the video makers and my viewers!

Just one more thing before I go, I love this guy who also makes video tutorials, take a peek!

Woop, woop, woopy do!

Just a quick post to say a big thank you and hugs to all for responding to my return to crochet post! I am so chuffed! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Cat is very happy!