PDF Pattern, $5.50

In case you couldn’t tell, this design was inspired by summer picnics. One of the things I loved about living in NY was going to central park and lazing about with friends for a potluck picnic! It’s just getting warm enough to do that in Bozeman, too. The yarn I used (Cascade 220 Heathers) reminded me of a picnic basket and I used some silky stash yarn to add the extra summery flowers. The pdf is a whopping 8 pages long and includes step by step photos for lining the bag and inserting the zipper. I’m not fond of knit/crochet bags without a lining and closure (unless they are totes) so I wanted to include all of that information for interested parties.

I had some wonderful pattern testers this time around, and if you’re on Ravelry you can see their variations on the Project Page.  I thought it was extra cool how international my testing team was- I had a tester each  from Canada, Sweden, India and the USA. I love the internet!!

I also wanted to show you this rendition I made with my Lacy Shells Hat Pattern. I squeaked it out with one skein (109 yds) of Noro Silk Garden. I love how it worked up and contrary to what I thought, the yarn does seem bearable to wear (and I’m a no-itch snob!). I’ll be teaching this pattern in my beginning crochet class at the yarn shop, if any locals are interested.

PDF Pattern, $3.50

I have a couple more finished projects to show you this week. It seems that all of a sudden this has turned into a bona fide crochet blog!  I’m still trying to think of my next crochet project, but don’t worry, I still sew buy fabric.  I struggle with wanting to design more patterns and wanting something totally mindless. It’s important to me to balance designing with making things from other people’s patterns so I can still keep my “hobbies”, see.  There are so many more wonderful crochet patterns now than there were even a few years ago, and I can’t help but try them out.

I’ve begun to add lining bands to my hats. Of course that’s another step and another material and more time, so I had resisted doing it for a long time. But then the shop I sell at said that a lot of people had mentioned that they were sensitive to wool, so I decided it was worth a shot to see if it helped sales. I sold three out of four newly lined hats to my coworkers before they even made it to the shop. Question answered.

Now I love the lining bands, because they’re a little extra surprise inside that only the wearer knows about. Plus it’s always fun to pick out the fabric– the sweet giraffes on the inside of this hat are definitely my favorite part.

And if you’re worried, as I was, that it’s too late in the season for hats, don’t fret– I’ve been informed it’ll snow here  until June. The weather’s actually been really nice  and sunny lately. It is good to see grass again.

 
And ended up with this:

A super simple K1, P1 ribbed hat. The yarn was so pretty that  I didn’t want to do anything complicated, and I knew I’d get more mileage with knitting than crochet.  The project made a perfect plane-ride companion. I may end up adding some type of brim since it’s a little short for Montana winters (I ran out of yarn. Plus, it’s embarrassing to put hats on your head with needles sticking out of them on planes. Not that I didn’t do it anyway– but I find this method less reliable  for determining fit with knitting than crochet).

I love the way handspun yarn looks and feels (especially this, because the vintage fabric spun in keeps it from itching my sensitive skin).  The only hard part about working with handspun is running out, understandably. I think in the future I’ll do a mix of handspun and basic yarn to make it last. I could see it being really pretty as an accent row.  

I’ve been going to bed thinking about all of the things I still need to post. I haven’t even unpacked my suitcase yet, or fully dealt with this:

These are just the fun packages- not the bills. Thanks so much to everyone who sent me a card, a little christmas something, and my ornament swappers. There were a couple standouts that I’ll share…just as soon as I get around to it. 

Next monday, we will learn how to use double pointed needles to decrease. While I’m sure I can figure it out, I’m going to let it sit and work on something else in the meantime. Like the baby quilt for my sis, the top of which is nearly done.

I also contributed this retro boy hat which I really ended up liking. I think I worked the stripes a zillion times to get just the right combination. It’s made with Red Heart Soft, which was actually pretty nice to work with and comes in a lot of colors– good to know if you have a lot of giftmaking on your list.

In other news, I signed up for two knitting classes in town so that I can learn to knit hats- one is a chunky earflap hat, and one is in the round. I’m mosty interested in the in-the-round one, but I signed up with a friend and we could both use a refresher.  There weren’t a ton of crochet classes on offer (which maybe I can fix), although at the competing yarn shop, there are. They’re so inexpensive that I just might have to sign up for all of them.