Baby Hats!!

Ambicrafty Baby Hat

Materials: Knit Picks Swish Superwash DK, one skein each eggplant and turquoise. 5 mm hook, 4mm circular needles (extra long for magic loop technique).

size: made to fit 18.5″ circumference

This was a really fun hat to improvise. I first started out with base chain sc for the brim, and then worked upwards in granite stitch, switching colors back and forth which resulted in a cool tile pattern. Then picked up one loop from every crochet stitch with a circular needle, knit about one inch plain, and then did a normal hat decrease sequence with 7 markers.

Felici Baby Hat

Materials: Knit Picks Felici sock yarn in Aurora (2 balls), 5.5mm hook.

Size: made to fit 19.5″ head circumference

This took a bit of experimenting before I got something I was kind of happy with. I matched the stripes on two strands for this. Started with 8hdcs and did a standard crochet hat increase pattern. Then switched to hdc, fpdc mock rib pattern after achieving desired circumference with a bit of negative ease. The brim naturally wants to flare out and roll up.

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Machine Knitting Disaster

What the ??? It’s huuuuge. (That chair is a giant LaZBoy). Especially the armhole opening — 2-3″ longer than need be. I don’t know if it was the knitting design software or me. The stitch gauge I plugged in was maybe off by 1/2 stitch per 4″, but the row gauge was right. I’ve noticed that free Knitware trial software consistently spits out the wrong row counts. Kind of frustrating to discover after hours of work.

Click here for a picture of the sweater hanging on the machine, and a glimpse of my messy work style. You might spot a slice of pizza on the counter.

Frog! At least I’m happy about my new wool winder, a prezzie from my partner for handing off Chapter 5. Meanwhile I’m going back to crocheting. My Woolease shipment from Knitting Warehouse–always quick–came in a few days ago.

I had to run out the door just then, but I swear I wanted to roll around in the soft, colorful balls–they’re for the Babette blanket (see this post). Would have bought these at Michael’s except the one nearby only carries drab colors, yuck. The WEBS shipment of Plymouth Encore should be here tomorrow, yay!

Here’s a parting action shot of the rainbow hat on my partner, who has claimed it for himself.

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D-Day April 30

Woo-hoo! Dropped off Chapter 5. Fifty-nine pages. My reward:  a yarn winder, gifted from my partner.  He’s been storing it in his office for weeks, it turns out, waiting for me to finish Ch. 5.  Can’t wait until he brings home the baby tonight.

I also picked up my Ph.D. cap and gown rental. Oh my god, what a bizarre costume! Tried it on and positively suffocated in massive folds of stiff black muslin and velvet.

Last night I worked up my first knit hat:

Red Heart Grande super-bulky yarn. The knit sample at Beverly’s had fun rainbow striping, but the row length/colorway harmonics worked out just so and the colors pooled badly. I’m too lazy to alternate strands.

I didn’t have a pattern, but it was pretty easy…. until I was down to six stitches and had no idea how to finish it off. So the hat has a little tail, until I learn how to fix it.

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Since I’ve Been So Good…

…I deserve a little break. Hehe. This morning I split Chapter 5 into two smaller chapters. So that puts me much closer to finishing Chapter 5, right? Except now I have to write a whole new intro for another chapter. Damn. But I’m feeling much better about my life, as I always do when work is going well.

This morning my therapist (who knits and crochets!) was wearing the most beautiful rendition of the Cupcake sweater from Stitch n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Hers was very mesh-y, gorgeous with a coordinating tank underneath. Elegant in taupe Patons Grace yarn. Fellow yarn-craftsters, I need to share this with you: that yarn is so soft, light, and drapey! And such delicate sheen.

Promise I’ll add some pics to this post tonight. Okay, gotta get back to work now 🙂 Worked past midnight and have been relaxing with a cocktail to wind down; writing sure hypes me up.

I’ve been meaning to post this hat, which I made for my partner for Valentine’s Day. It’s a variation of my Hep Hat pattern, modified to accommodate Lamb’s Pride Bulky yarn.

In keeping with the red theme, here’s one of his nifty linoleum block prints–his creative hobby, which I wish he would pursue more regularly. There’s another one based on a photo of my toes sticking out of bedsheets. Can’t decide whether it’s sweet or creepy that he takes pictures of me while I’m asleep. 😀

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Score! More Japanese Crochet Books

Here are my newest treasures, found at SF Japantown Kinokuniya Bookstore:

300 Motifs/Edgings — ISBN 4-529-04233-2

What I love about this book is that it shows how to connect motifs, and how they look in a group. Click for larger pic.

A hat book! ISBN 978-4-529-04296-3

This book includes a bunch of brimmed caps, including some with bottom-up construction (not the one shown).

Love this fedora-esque hat! Best thing is, all the patterns are diagrammed in the round, like this one for another hat (click for larger pic):

I can’t wait to make a few of these!

<edit> I finally figured out how to do progress bars without futzing with the CSS for this blog, thanks to this thread on Crochetville.  Thanks to noricum for letting people copy her html!

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Why I Love to Crochet Hats

Instant gratification. Yesterday I whipped this up using 2 balls of Patons SWS.

Here is my sister patiently modeling it. The above pics have better color accuracy.

Well, “whipped up” might be an exaggeration. The top part went very quickly but the brim took longer. I ripped it out five times until I got it right. Rrrgh. But I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

This was inspired by Vanillaxlight’s hats at Craftster. I didn’t have enough yarn (or the patience) to do the whole thing in front post double crochet/back post double crochet, so the non-ribbed part of the cap is in hdc, with fpdc for ribbing.  *Edit 5/6/05: This hat is now called “hep hat”, and you can find a tutorial on the patterns page.

Also learned a new method of hat increases: starting out with twice as many stitches as normal (in this case, I used 16dc) and then increasing every other row. Sometimes every third. This allows for more ribs.

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Pretty Lavender Hat

It’s been very cold, and I’m still short on hats. So I took an odd ball of TLC Lustre in Lavender and made this up. Kinda girly but cute, if I do say so myself.

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Record Cold

Brrrr, it’s cold here! Record low temps. “42′ F. Feels like 37′” this afternoon. Ventured out in a coat and layers, but the icy winds cut through my jeans. So, I’m working on another brimmed beret based on this pattern, this time in Patons Classic Merino in white/cream.

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