Despite my initial enthusiasm for the pink stole last Friday, things stalled somewhat over the weekend while I dealt with the opening salvo of a nasty cold. For me, these things follow a very predictable pattern: There’s a 12-24 hour sore throat followed by 48 hours of heavy congestion, coughing, sneezing, fever, aches and general misery. If I behave myself, stay in bed, get plenty of fluids and lots of rest, the worst is over after that. And if I don’t behave myself, well, then there’s Myria who sees that I do :)
Many of the yarns shown on Friday need to be wound into balls and I simply didn’t have the motivation this weekend. That just seemed way too much like work!
So, to a background of Voyager interspersed with an occasional Hercules, I did this instead:
It’s the same basic design as Blossom except done to adult size and with a rolled brim rather than ribbing. It was actually a lot of fun and once I got going, I enjoyed figuring out what the next step should be. This is a great design for encouraging spontaneity and something I should play with more often as I don’t tend to be the most free-spirited of people :) A little loosening of the ideas and approaches is a very good thing.
This starts with a ring into which 12 dcs are worked (worsted weight yarn - Cascade 220, in this case, size 8/H crochet hook). Each round is increased by 12 dcs evenly spaced until you have the diameter crown you want. I have a large skull, so I did 6 rounds, ending up with 72 dc stitches. At that point, I picked up the stitches on a US size 8 (5mm) circular needle and commenced to play :)
Knit a few rounds - how about a few bobbles? Yeah, sounds good - bobbles it is. Knit a few more rounds - a little seed stitch, just to keep things interesting? Why not? Knit a few rows of seeds and a few more rows plain. What about a knit/purl pattern that isn’t either seeds or ribbing? Would that be good? Hey - worth a try anyway, let’s see what that looks like….
And really, before I knew it I was checking the hat for length and binding off.
Oh - and, besides the fun factor, there’s a real advantage to making a hat this way:
It can hold your materials neatly and help keep things tidy. I don’t know about you good folks, but that’s something with which I need all the help I can get!
Note: If anyone has seen the top of my coffee table, please let me know? It seems to have disappeared. There’s a rumor that it’s lurking under the yarn and projects but there’s no real evidence to substantiate that. For all I know, it’s run away and joined the French Foreign Legion, slogging away under the name Beau Dacius :)
And then, because I thought there was enough yarn, I did this too:
It’s short because I wasn’t sure just how much yarn I had left. The pattern is what I think is called a gull wing cable both forward and reversed with a couple of coin cables thrown in for variation. I haven’t completed the second mitt yet, but it will likely not entirely match the first one - though it will use the same patterns, just arranged differently :) If, when the second mitt is complete, I still have yarn left over, I may see about crocheting a ruffle onto the cuff - you know, just for fun!
Now I need to get dressed because nothing else got done this weekend while I was incubating the plague and we’re running out of essentials - like toilet paper!
Happy Monday :)
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I really like the mitts…can you tell me how the cables are done (that is, the pattern repeat), or point me in the direction of the pattern?
Thanks!
Mary - I’ve sent you e-mail to explain this :)
