Accidentally Mauve

Hats... Hats... Hats... Hats... Hats...

Starting to feel a little overwhelmed by HATS at the moment!

And there are still more to come...

I'm still working on a batch to send up to Alice Springs for the Beanie Festival - two for the Competition, and ten for sale at Beanie Central...

Plus a bunch of assorted Chemo Caps for Loved Ones...

Today I'm sharing a slightly different take on the Stretchy Accidental Hat. Usually I would tie all the loose ends across the top of the hat to form a seam. This time I have gathered all the ends together in a bunch, and wrapped some yarn around them to create a tassel.

I like it.

It gives the beanie a more traditional shape, but the giant tassel keeps the Element of Crazy strong.

Another Hat Fixed...

I was on such a high after seeing how nicely Yesterday's Hat turned out... that I decided to update another one! Plus, it's the perfect excuse to show off some more photos of Little Miss Charlotte...

 

The Original Hat was a gift from one of my Crochet Buddies. Julie did a beautiful job when she made it, and Charlotte has had a lot of wear out of it.... but it was getting to be that little bit too short to really stay on properly.

 

It really only needed an extra couple of rounds added to it, and I then finished off with a spike stitch in dark purple. I was happy with the new fit, but the look wasn't really inspiring me. You can see from the photo below that it's nice enough - but just a bit too blandish...

 

So I figured it needed an embellishment of some kind. I tried stars and hearts and button clusters, but none were quite right... then I ended up back with the basic flower! 

Plus a button.

And some simple embroidery.

Look - We're nearly walking!

Yes.

I did it!

Charlotte's hat is fixed, as promised.


If you missed my post on Friday - you can take a look here at how small her hat had become - it wasn't even long enough to cover her ears.

(which kind of defeats the purpose of a winter hat, I think)



Anyway, I removed the edging and then added a few more rounds to lengthen the hat... plus a little flower to finish it off.

The whole process took me about an hour - although half that time was just me fluffing around trying to make a decision - so it was probably only about 30 minutes of actual work.

Better than giving the hat away...

And I actually like it more than the original.

Head too Big?

Is my head too big? Or is my hat too small?

Never mind... my brother still LOVES ME...

And Mum promises to FIX my old hat at the weekend! She says it will be so easy to do with crochet. Hopefully she doesn't let herself get distracted (that happens ALL the time).

Embellishing gifts

Here's an idea for using up those scrap embroidery threads...

You can crochet up some Gorgeous Flowers for jazzing up your gift wraps (I just glue mine in place with a dab of white PVA glue)

Most of the time I'm just a Brown Paper and Raffia girl, but every now and then the occasion calls for a little more zhuzh!

Winner Announced

Congratulations to Dawn for her winning Quirky Koala.





Now I have to be completely upfront here, and let you know that Dawn is in fact a very dear Real Life friend of mine. We met several years ago through Ravelry and have since become wonderful friends.


I almost didn't choose Dawn (or Dawnie-Pants, as we like to call her around here) as the winner... because of our friendship. I didn't want to appear to be 'playing favourites'. But that hardly seemed fair! Because I really REALLY loved her version of True Blue the Quirky Koala. She deserves to win... and shouldn't be disadvantaged for being a friend!

Choosing a winner is always tricky... but here are my favourite characteristics of this toy:

• the realistic colours - my personal style is to steer away from the expected colourways, but I loved seeing the Koala worked in true colours (complete with a couple of gum leaves)
• those ears - Dawn has actually brushed those ears with a wire brush to create a fluffy effect - how clever is that???
• the green eyes are so striking
• and I'm loving the extra effort Dawn has put into the photography - it finishes her entry off beautifully!

He is such a wonderful interpretation of my original pattern.

So, as the winner.... Dawn will now tell ME what to design for the next Crochet Challenge, which will begin in June 2012.

Stay tuned, and I will let you know what she chooses! 

May Knitting Challenge

So my brief for this month was to design a Friendly Dragon with Big Wings - and here he is!
(as chosen by our winner from the Matryoshka Challenge)

I'm calling him Thirteen the Lucky Dragon...

I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this one... Nothing really seemed to be going right and every new piece I added to the toy just seemed to take me further and further off course.

As I was jotting down my pattern notes, I noticed that the number 13 kept appearing over and over again... cast on 13... 13 rows of this... 13 rows of that... you get the idea.

Anyway, I was starting to think of him as Thirteen the Unlucky Dragon...

So I scrapped my efforts, and started afresh.

Second time around and things were falling into place much more happily - but I still had the name 'Thirteen' etched into my brain...

But I couldn't call him Unlucky anymore - because everything was falling into place EXACTLY as I wanted it to... And so he became Thirteen the Lucky Dragon!



So, here's the plan for May...

• Knit this toy from my pattern. 
• Enter your project photo in this competition over at Ravelry. If you are not a Ravelry member, you can enter by emailing me your entry
• Entries will close 31/5/12 at midnight, my time (AEST Australia, GMT+10)
• Winner announced 2/6/12... photo of winning project will be posted here on my blog... and I'll also tell you why I chose it
• The winner will then choose what they would like me to design for the next Knit-Along (KAL) which will be run in July 2012 (toys have been popular so far, but you can choose anything you like)

 

SO... are you in?

Want to join in the fun?

Email me for the pattern to get started - pattern will be available from 2/5/12