Originally published in the Winter ‘07/Spring ‘08 issue of Knitscene, the crochet pattern is now available as in a free eBook from CrochetMe (How to Crochet Granny Squares with CrochetMe). The pattern with full article on how to dye the motifs with food coloring is available for sale through the Interweave online store.
Pattern: Basic Crochet Baby Beanie with some alterations for thinner yarn (smaller hook, additional rounds)
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton, organic colors Birch 30, Clay 31, and Skinny Dyed 310 Coffee. I had one skein of each and I am thinking there may be enough left over to make a second hat, but I might have to change the stripe pattern on the sides to include the Birch 30.
Hook: E/3.5 mm
This was whipped up quickly as a gift for friends expecting their first child (and one of them made a beautiful patchwork baby blanket for me to gift to another friend), so I didn’t take detailed notes while I was doing this; I wanted to get it done and wrapped and delivered without delay.
Ears were worked in as part of a round, into the front loop only as (chain 4, 4 dc into next st, chain 4, slip st into next st), slip stitched in the front loop only to the next ear (worked as the first), then back to hdc into ea st. On the following round the hdcs were worked into the back loop from ear to ear. This does make that section a little tighter and the ears could just as easily be added on afterwards. Eye and mouth details were embroidered on afterwards.
I was calling this a bear, but it’s really unclear and sort of oddly generally animal-ish. I showed a photo around at an Aloha Knitters meeting, just asking those present to tell me what animal they thought it was. Answers included hedgehog, agouti, otter, dog, rabbit, and woodchuck, so hey, it’s whatever you want it to be! What I like best about this hat is that the wee face on the top has ears, and from the side, the baby wearing it has ears too. Aww!
Most of what I’m doing with this blog and website is currently happening in the form of updating links, re-loading images, and otherwise continuing the smaller bits of the transition from the old blog to this one. It takes quite a bit of time, but as it’s been really hot here lately and I’ve been doing a lot of shovel-monkey work for the archaeology firm lately, there hasn’t been much knit or crochet action so I don’t mind.
I’ve also done a revision to the free Top Down Ribbed Beanie knit recipe, as I will be licensing the Good Karma Spinning Co. to offer it as a promo item with their yarns. The worsted weight alpaca/wool blend is springy, soft, and delightful, and the Yarn Randomness dk/heavy sock weight alpaca/wool blend would, I think, make a great extra-long beanie to scrunch up.
available as a free PDF download through Ravelry.com
I’m not done tinkering with it yet – for starters, I’ll be replacing the single photo on the cover with multiple views, and I’m considering adding a chart for the crown section. Mostly I wanted to have a cleaner looking layout, and I have been wanting to upgrade the free patterns so that they are all available as PDF downloads that are representative of what can be expected from the patterns for sale.
Springtime Baby Beanie (no flowers)
For a the newly arrived baby of longtime friends, I chose to purchase handmade items as gifts so that I’d have things ready to send before the child entered kindergarden. Crocheting a simple beanie felt attainable to me, though, so I chose some Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton from my stash (I’ve been wanting to use this Pickle Green for a while now) and did a simple striping with Lemongrass Yellow and Shell Pink. Cute, right?
Well, the color changes for the stripes weren’t completely even. I wasn’t going to rip back and redo them, so I figured I could just do a quick flower and cover it up.
Springtime Baby Beanie (1 flower)
Aww. Might redo the embroidery in the center, though.
It was getting late, but I had an idea about other flowers I could make, so I stayed up to crochet “just one more.”
Springtime Baby Beanie (3 flowers)
Okay, two more. And I think I need to do more to the one on the right.
Pattern: Basic Crochet Baby Beanie (it’s free, and you can use it to make and sell as many finished items as you like). I haven’t worked up full instructions for the flowers yet; I’ve been thinking about doing a for-sale pattern set of multiple sizes in different yarn weights and might chart up the flowers for that set. I’m also thinking about formatting the free version as a downloadable PDF for Ravelry.
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. Pickle Green (body), Lemongrass Yellow (stripes) and Shell Pink (stripe). kpixie.com has it on sale as of this writing.
Over the weekend, I crocheted a basic reusable cloth to use with a certain trademarked floor sweeper meant to be used with name-brand disposable cloths. I improvised, but there are free crochet patterns for that (Tonya Hume’s Swiffer Cover, Tiff Crochets Swiffer Cardi, and Gherkin’s Bucket Crochet Biffer Shrug, for starters). I used the basic cloth, and it worked fine, but I found myself wanting a loopy, dust mop type of cloth to do things like clean the ceiling fan blades, so after a couple of pointlessly difficult tries at making one out of loop st squares, I finished this one – made flat in one piece, with pockets at the side to slip over the head of the sweeper.
UPDATE 3 July 2008: Turns out I have an older, smaller model, and many people have the newer, larger model. Larger size is now included in the recipe.
Yarn: 1 ball Lily Sugar n’ Cream kitchen cotton (70.9g/120 yds 100% cotton) [AUS/NZ: 10-ply cotton]
Yarn Substitutes: Pisgah Peaches & Creme kitchen cotton, Lion Brand Lion Cotton, Kitchen Cotton, Cotton-Ease, Nature’s Choice Organic Cotton, Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton, Dyed Cotton, Pakucho Organic Cotton, or any other worsted weight cotton or cotton-blend yarn of your choice. You could also use wool – it attract dust nicely!
Crochet hook: I/9/5.5mm or size to get gauge
Knitting needle: US13/9mm/UK00 dpn [OPTIONAL] – to make loops over (can use finger, pen, dowel, etc.)
Crochet Me loop stitch tutorial by Chloe Nightingale
Measurements: SMALLER (older models) 3″/7.5cm wide, 9.5″/19cm long, LARGER (newer models) 4.5″/11.5cm wide, 10″/25.5cm long. Will fit on a Swiffer ™ sweeper – but the sizes can vary, so check the measurements of the sweeper you are using and adjust pattern as needed to fit.
Gauge/Tension: in sc, 16 sts/16 rows = 4″/10cm. In loop stitch, 16 sts/10 rows = 4″/10cm
The hook size will seem large for the yarn, but the loop stitch can get very tight, making it harder to crochet and resulting in a firmer fabric than necessary. Crocheted flat in one piece, with single crochet flaps sewn down along the sides so that the dust mop can be slipped on and off the sweeper head.
This pattern may be used by individuals to make and sell finished items (for example, at craft fairs, on Etsy, as charity fundraiser items). Please give credit where credit is due.
Abbreviations:
ch = chain
sc = single crochet [AUS/NZ/UK: replace with dc = double crochet]
st = stitch
lp st = loop stitch
Instructions for sizes given as SMALLER(LARGER)
To make evenly sized loops, I worked the loops over a double-pointed knitting needle. I work the entire row and then slide the knitting needle out of the loops.
Begin with first flap:
ch 13 (20)
1) sc 12 (19)
2) ch 1, sc 12 (19)
repeat row 2 until piece measures 2″/5cm long (7 rows)
[for LARGER size, you may want to make the flaps a little longer]
turning row:
sc 12 (19) in front loops only
looped surface:
1) lp st 12 (19)
2) sc 12 (19)
repeat rows 1 and 2 until loop st section measures 9.5″/19cm(10″/25.5cm) long.
turning row:
sc 12 (19) in front loops only
second flap:
1) ch 1, sc 12 (19)
repeat until second flap measures 2″/5cm long. Fasten off.
[for LARGER size, you may want to make the flaps a little longer]
Assemble: Fold flaps to back (smooth side) and sew the sides down, leaving top of flap open. Weave in all ends. I don’t think this needs blocking, but if that would make you happy, wash with mild soap and wet-block to size.
Currently listed in my Etsy shop: Handspun Hat, $35
Yarn: Jenny Neutron Star, handspun wool plied with metallic gold, "Sweet Flesh"
You can see the metallic gold rick-rack plied with the wool in this picture.
Top-Down Ribbed Beanie Recipe
US 11 and 10 needles
Jenny Neutron Star handspun, "Candy", about 80 yards
This time it’s really finished – I ripped back a few rounds, then switched to US 10 needles and did 2 rounds of stockinette and bound it off. I like it better now, although I do feel like the hat is asking for more. Some buttons, maybe? A few crochet circles? I may have to just set it aside and walk away. It’s already quite exuberant.
About the yarn – the jennyneutronstar.com site won’t load for me, and the Jenny Neutron Star Etsy shop hasn’t had any activity for over a year. Back when I first got this yarn, quirky handspun yarn wasn’t as readily available. When I was asked to put together a few kits for the Alt Fiber show, I didn’t have much time and I really wanted to feature indie crafters. Jenny Neutron Star really came through for me and custom-spun 3 skeins to order (although I botched the wpi – this is really more like 5-6 wpi yarn, and it’s my misstatement, not hers). 2 years later, nifty handspun/handdyed yarns are thriving on Etsy, and so while I can’t find a way to direct you to Jenny Neutron Star right now, I do have a couple of Etsy favorite sellers for bulky thick/thin yarns: Terra Bella Spun does handspun/handdyed, which I’ve used to knit up similar hats. Miss Hawklet has some "scraptacular" yarns up right now that I find especially delightful, and I used some Midnight & Lulu yarn in the Springtime Scarflette I did last year. Typing "handspun yarn" into the Etsy search feature will get you pages and pages of delightful stuff! I know I have to be careful when I do that. For the next few days, my Etsy favorites (up on the top right corner of this blog) will be featuring lovely handspun yarns. I may have to go sit in my stash for a little while to keep me from buying more.
Yarn: Jenny Neutron Star handspun, "Candy"
Pattern: Top-Down Ribbed Beanie Recipe
Needles: US 11
I was worried about running out of yarn, and used up almost every inch of it. Now I think it’s too long, which is easy to do when working at a chunky gauge like this. I think I’m going to undo the bind-off and re-knit the hem on smaller needles (I did 3 rounds of reverse stockinette – I think 2 would be better).
One of the nice things about having an Etsy shop is that I don’t have to think about whether I would wear this (or when). I love the colors and the textures but it’s just a bit much. [Ms. M, I can hear you gleefully cackling at that one - you remember what my hair used to look like, after all.]
Yarn: handspun by Jenny Neutron Star, merino wool with random pieces of cotton, alpaca, silk, and tencel.
Pattern: Top-Down Ribbed Beanie Recipe
Needles: US 11
My basic crochet beanie starts with making a flat circle until the diameter x 3 = head circumference (or slightly smaller if you want a snug fit). Reading through the instructions, you can see that the increases for the crown form a pattern of one more stitch between increases. You can continue working increase rounds until the diameter is the right size for what you want to make, then stop working increases and just work evenly around until the sides are as long as you want them to be. For single crochet, start with 6 sts in the ring, and for double crochet, start with 12 sts in the ring (you may also want to chain 6 instead of 4).
Basic Crochet Beanie (Baby)
Size: 15″/38cm circumference, about 5″/13cm deep [I have to double-check these measurements]
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, color A (Sky Blue), about 60 yards [worsted weight]
Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton, color B (Sand), about 15 yards
Hook: US G/4.0mm
If you are working in a spiral, mark the beginning of each round with a removable stitch marker. The hat shown in the photos was worked in a spiral – you can see that the stripes don’t meet up at the back.
If you are working in concentric rings, at the end of each round, join the last stitch to the first stitch with a slip stitch, and begin each round with ch 2.
With color A, chain 4 and join into a ring with a slip stitch.
Round 1) 8 hdc into ring (8 sts)
Round 2) 2 hdc in ea st (16 sts)
Round 3) 2 hdc in first st, *hdc in next st, 2 hdc in following st* (24 sts)
Round 4) 2 hdc in first st, *hdc in next 2 sts, 2 hdc in following st (32 sts)
Round 5) 2 hdc in first st, *hdc in next 3 sts, 2 hdc in following st (40 sts)
change to color B
Round 6) 2 hdc in first st, *hdc in next 4 sts, 2 hdc in following st (48 sts)
change to color A
Round 7) 2 hdc in first st, *hdc in next 5 sts, 2 hdc in following st (56 sts)
Round 8) 2 hdc in first st, *hdc in next 6 sts, 2 hdc in following st (64 sts)
Round 9-11) hdc in ea st (64 sts)
change to color B
Round 12) hdc in ea st (64 sts)
change to color A
Rounds 13 – 17) hdc in ea st (64 sts)
change to color B
Round 18) hdc in ea st (64 sts)
join first and last stitch of final round with a slip st. Cut yarn. Tail end of yarn from beginning can be threaded through first round of stitches and pulled tight. Weave in all ends.
