Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My first hats!

I decided last week when I was home on Friday that I would take a little time in the morning to crochet before I got started on the entryway. I found some crochet patterns my Nana had given me a while back & tucked in was a hat pattern from my friend Delia. I looked it over & it sounded fairly easy so I decided to give it a try.

The pattern called for “baby weight” yarn, something I knew I didn’t have around. I figured I’d just start out with some of my Caron Super Soft, knowing it might be a little more difficult to work with & would end up a little heavier than I needed. But, at least it was a start!

The first one took me a little under two hours, which I didn’t think was too bad. I had a little issue with my seam showing, but I think I’ve got that figured out now. I was also confused on working back vs. front loops, since it didn’t come out looking like the photo I had. I think it would depend on whether you’re working from the inside or the outside of the hat. I was switching back & forth, and decided it didn’t matter too much because it could just be turned inside out to whichever side looked better. :)

When I did what was supposed to be a border, the bottom row didn’t want to stay flat, so I decided to just fold it up & sew it in place (hence the x’s), and I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately, I should have done the x’s on the other side, because the border (now the very bottom of the hat) shows up better from the inside, but the x’s don’t look so great from that side. Oh well, I didn’t think it was too shabby for my first try!
You can't really see the lavender stripe
on the bottom of the hat in this picture,
but I promise it's there!

See, there it is!


Second try, I still didn’t have baby weight yarn, so I decided to make one in the opposite colors of the first. I was careful to pay close attention to which side of the first hat I liked better when it came to my back vs. front loops, and made sure I sewed the edge up so the border looks right. I didn’t feel like doing the x’s on this one, so I just stuck with the one row of stitching. The seam on this one is worse than the first because I didn’t figure out how to fix it until the third hat, and somehow I must have kept adding a stitch every row because it doesn’t even go straight. To help offset the horrible seam, I decided to do a little flower on the opposite side. Stupid flower was harder to figure out than it should have been, but once I got smart, it was super easy to make & attach. I (of course) was trying to make it WAY more difficult than it needed to be!


I finished up hat 3 on my way in to work this morning (while Nick drove, of course!), and it’s definitely much better than the first two in the seam department. I played with the pattern a little bit, and really like how it turned out. I also picked up some baby weight yarn this weekend, and it’s MUCH easier to work with, and I really like the weight of the finished hat a lot better. With the more open pattern, it will be a much better hat for those summer babies. (Photos to come of this one, since I finished it up on the way in this morning)

All these hats will be donated to Marine Corps Kids, but I’ve already got a request from a friend to make one for her daughter. I love making them since they are quick & rewarding, and don’t leave me sitting with a huge blanket on my lap when the days are getting warmer! I do need to finish up a border for a blanket, but after that, I think I’m going to take a break from blankets for the summer. I know I said I wanted to get another done before June, and maybe I still will, but for now, it’s hats!

Until next time…

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