baby hats

I've been making baby hats! 

Most of these I worked the same way. I started with an adjustable ring, worked 12 dc in ring for first round, 2 dc in each stitch for Round 2, and increased in every other stitch for Round 3. Thereafter work even (36 stitches in every round) to Round 9. Rounds 10, 11, and 12 are worked even in single crochet.

The yarn used for these hats is so adorable! It is Red Heart Gumdrop in colors Cherry and Smoothie. It's a worsted weight acrylic yarn I picked up at Michael's. I used an H hook to work these hats.

If you're looking for baby hat patterns, here are a few sites I have referenced, including my own.

Crochet Cabana - see hats for babies and children.
Kelley's Yarns (Feb 23, 2008 post) pattern in two different sizes
Cats Rockin Quick Crochet Newborn Baby Beanie (and other baby hats) has measurement information which might be quite helpful.
Bev's Country Cottage also has information on measurements

There are many other wonderful sites with baby hat patterns as well. Just do a search for crochet baby hat patterns.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

hats and sizing

Sandy over at the Bridge and Beyond posted photos of the hats I forgot to take a picture of so I thought I'd share Sandy's pictures. You can see her post about these and all the other donations that are sent for the homeless at the blog site here. 

Sandy asks that items are labeled as to size so I estimated what I thought the size might be for these hats. That's the little white tags you see here. I am TERRIBLE at this but hopefully the hats will fit someone in the right range.

You might recall I've been also working on baby hats. Going from baby hats to adult men hats is an interesting transition. The adult hats always look so large compared to the baby hats. Sometimes I will impose on my husband to try them on and often, although they fit, they could be larger. Men just have large heads! I have a small head so I can't go by my own measurements.

Isn't it funny how we (read *I*) never trust ourselves with sizing. I always wonder if I've made the item too small or too large for the need. Invariably I am reassured by the coordinator of whatever effort I'm sending to, but I still have little confidence! I am not the only one as other crocheters have also talked about it. 

If you are in that situation, there are a couple places with information on hat sizing. One I use often is at Bev's Country Cottage. 

Another one I ran into recently is this one. Southern Threads for Heads sell hats but the sizing info is good for anyone. If you can't crochet or knit and want to just buy one, these are currently $35. (I have no affiliation. I just ran into this site through a link somewhere.)

Of course, I have hat patterns that I designed and I use them myself too! You can find them at http://www.crochetcabana.com/html/patterns_hats.html .

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

hat and links

I got sidetracked yet again. I'm still making adult hats and prayer cloths, but there was a call put out for some baby hats. Since I had two skeins of Red Heart Kids periwinkle, I thought I'd make some of those. Now I wasn't sure just how big a newborn's head is - it's been a whole year since my grandson was that tiny! I guestimated and hope these will do.

They are different sizes. I worked at least one 12, 24, 36, 48 then even. Then I worked a couple to 36 and then even. I worked a couple 12, 24, 36, 42 and even. And I think I have a couple worked 12, 24, 36, 45. They are simple dc hats with a sc rim. I wasn't very creative but they should keep a little one's head warm and the color is really pretty. If I felt confident in the size I could put a pretty rim at the end but these may need to be curled up to fit. I'm just not sure. I used an H hook for these.

I did look at a couple of sizing charts so I think they will be good. Do I sound positive? LOL

In other news, are you following the Red Heart 12 weeks of Christmas? I always enjoy seeing what they will come up with.

Also, I received an email from a young lady associated with Sheru Knitting and Crochet. I checked out the web site and they have some very good video tutorials. One in particular that I looked at was on making the popcorn. She demonstrated two different methods in one video, one of which I had never seen. Since the popcorn stitch is not my favorite stitch to work, perhaps this new method will bring me into the fold. There are 5 videos concerning the popcorn.

Another site that caught my interst this week was Naztazia.com . I just love the cancer ribbon scarf and shawl patterns that she has up right now. It is on my list to try. You can make these in different colors to represent the different types of cancer.

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

hats

I do plan to work on more stitch-cation squares, but I got sidetracked - which I often do. LOL A skein just called to me to be made into a hat so that is what I did. Then I found a skein was a good size for a hat so I kept making them. I forgot to take pictures of the first group, but here are two that I did remember to photograph.

The hats are very plain and simple, mindless really.  Easy to work while watching TV. 

I used an adjustable ring for the beginning and put 12 dc in there. Then I increased as 24, 36, 48, 48, 60, 60, 72 stitches per round and then worked even. I added 4 rounds of sc at the brim. 

I used an H hook for these but I think I used an I hook on a couple of the previous ones. Depending on which yarn is used, to 72 stitches on round should give a medium size hat. The I hook would give a larger one, of course.

On one hat I do remember I decided it was too small and I added a round increasing half the number of stitches. That may have been the RH Soft as that is a thin worsted.

To begin each round, I used (ch 1, dc) as my first stitch. When I got back to the beginning, I worked a slip stitch into the dc not the ch-1 to end that round, and began the next round by working the (ch 1, dc). Clear as mud?

I think the grey is Vanna's Choice Charcoal Grey and the brown Vanna's Choice Honey. I'm working on one now in Knit Picks Brava Worsted Eggplant which is a deep purple. I'll try to remember to take a photo of that one, but really they all look the same except for color.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

cross stitched square

The next square of Stitch-cation that I chose to work is the Cross-stitched Square.

I used Red Heart Soft Wine and an I hook. In retrospect, I should have used the H hook for this one. You never know until you're done, eh?

The pattern is for 27 rows. I stopped at 12 cross-stitch rows and finished with a row of single crochet. The important part is making sure the edging has the right number of stitches.

Sometimes I think I should just give up crocheting. heh I carefully counted out the stitches to get the proper number for the edging. Finished it and sewed my tails in back and forth. THEN I realized I had put the edging on the wrong side. *hangs head in shame* I was so annoyed I put the square aside for the night. Today, I ripped back the edging and redid it. You can imagine how much fun that was to do! LOL  This was not the pattern's fault, but mine. I just didn't pay close enough attention.

After all was said and done, however, the square looks really nice. It is slightly larger than the other two, even stopping short of the suggested number of rows.

The Stitch-cation uses an H hook but if you notice the patterns, they use different hooks. I think this one used an F.

I might mention here that if you go to the Stitch-cation page, you can download the book with all the square links. It does NOT have the square instructions, just links to the pattern, videos, and also has some extra information. But it is useful to have in one place in your computer.

As I think I said in a previous post, Stitch-cation was done over last summer as a project with Mikey of the Crochet Crowd. I happened across a mention of it on Facebook and decided to give some of the squares a try. I've worked three so far and I really like the way they are coming out.

This square is not too difficult to do. Things to look out for include watching to make sure you don't shorten your cross-stitch and pull the shell in, and also that you don't start your next section in the last stitch from the previous one. Skip that stitch - you will see that a stitch is already there, and skip the next stitch. Your 2 dc will go into the next two stitches and then you cross over to catch the missed stitch. Don't miss your last stitch, which goes into your turning chain.

Of course, you should keep track of your size if you are making these to all go together. Mine have been coming out 10" although this one is slightly larger, It will still work with the others.

That's about it. This is a nice square. Think I might make another one.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie