The Slightly Slouchy Hat pattern was written because a certain surly, sarcastic teenager that I adore enjoys wearing hats that actively annoy people (such as a pilly, linty old rag of a hat, worn to a wedding reception). This teenager is a fan of bright orange, and at the time that I was writing up the pattern, I didn’t have any on hand. Bright stripes of Firefly butt were, fortunately, obnoxious enough, but I still wanted to make one in a bright orange. I asked for recommendations on Twitter, and Beverly of PoMo Golightly graciously passed along a skein of yarn that turned out to be just right. The shades of orange shift and flicker just a bit, giving it a little more interest than a flat monochrome would.
A little while back I ordered 1 ball of Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in colorway “Mix Tape” so I could play with it and see how the long color changes would look. Since I wanted to try using a fingering weight yarn with my Slightly Slouchy crochet hat pattern, I picked up a size E hook and got started. I did wind up unraveling the beginning, snipping off the first color, and then starting again – because no matter what, a big pink circle at the top of a hat is going to make someone think of…something other than a hat.
The colors are wonderful, aren’t they? I like the way the hot brights are balanced out by the dark grey.
This is part of my getting a jump on the winter holidays project list. The Slightly Slouchy Hat has been teen-approved – the Firefly stripes version was made ‘specially for a smart, sarcastic teen who enjoys the added obnoxiousness potential of having the colors of a Lampyridae backside involved. Your mileage may vary.
Pattern: Slightly Slouchy Hat (free! – in US/Canada and UK/Antipodes versions)
Yarn: Knit Picks, Chroma Fingering Sock Yarn, colorway Mix Tape
Photo: “Foliage” by Robyn Jay
The color story for Fresh Designs Crochet: Hats is “Foliage” – which is a pretty broad-ranging color story, since that includes all the seasons and plants of all sorts. While the color stories aren’t necessarily intended to be a theme, if the inspiration strikes that way, I say run with it. Hats are worn all year round in all kinds of climates; what kind of foliage evokes a hat for hot, humid days? a walk in cool, windy woods? sinking up to your knees in snow? a rainy season?
More recently, I read Turning Writers Into M*********** Rockstars on the Terrible Minds blog (FYI, the blog post title and body include strong language). It includes:
Writers are so polite. Their hobbies tend to match. “Oh, I collect first editions of classic American novels!” “I crochet!” “I have a sugar glider named Lord Byron!”
We’re done with that. It’s time to crank up the volume knob, break it off, and stab the shard of plastic into someone’s neck. Authors need bigger, badder, waaaaay more f*****-up hobbies.
Crochet is polite? The writer, Chuck Wendig, probably hasn’t heard about yarnbombing/yarnstorming or the Crochet Liberation Front. It got me to wondering on Twitter what a crocheted Rockstar Writer hat could look like, and over the weekend, I started playing around with some ideas myself. I’d love to see yours.
Last weekend, I had a lot on my mind (Fresh Designs Crochet stuff, mostly) and three skeins of Twisted Fiber Arts Playful in three different versions of the Firefly colorway. I sat down, wound up two of the skeins, picked up a crochet hook, smoothed out my thoughts and ended up with two hats. Made a little longer and then gathered in back with a crocheted cord, so that the amount of slouch can be adjusted to the wearers taste (or the cord can be taken out and the brim folded up, or pulled down over ears and back of neck). I plan to make a few more of these this summer to have handy for winter gift-giving.
The Slightly Slouchy Hat crochet pattern is free and available in both US/Canada terminology and UK/Australia/New Zealand terminology (both PDFs are included; check the top right corner of the page to be sure you are using the version with the terminology you prefer). Sizes XS (child) to XL.
Twisted Fiber Arts Playful Self-Striping yarn (with long-repeat option), colorway Firefly
Twisted Fiber Arts Playful Self-Striping yarn (with long-repeat option), colorway Firefly
Twisted Fiber Arts Playful Evolution yarn, colorway Firefly
Twisted Fiber Arts Playful Evolution yarn, colorway Firefly
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I have been slowly plugging away at revising the Matilda & Tillie hat patterns, working out a new approach to the brim (so it is easier to get it to flare out more) and making new samples for photographing. This is sample number one, in Peace Fleece worsted Anna’s Grasshopper (it’s much lighter than my photo). I’m really liking the way it’s working up – and I’m going to have to knit another one for myself, because this one is too big. I chose to knit a large to make sure there was enough yarn to do the entire hat, trim and all, with one skein.
It was really nice to go to a Windward-side meeting of the Aloha Knitters at the ChadLou’s coffeeshop, where I had one of their house-made ice cream sandwiches (chocolate chip) and a lavender green tea latte. Both were delicious. The space is really nice and open, with comfy seating and a very laid-back atmosphere. The current schedule is Thursday nights, 6 – 8 pm.
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!
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.
