Warm Winter Hat

On Friday I was out buying a birthday present for Ullabella when I found this really cool and chunky yarn from Viking of Norway called Balder. And I just had to buy it.

The colour changes are really nice and they remind me of a mix of ocean and winter and since it is 100% wool and nice and thick it will be very warm too, so because of the fairly limited yardage the yarn was screaming that it wanted to become a hat. I had a look on Ravelry and found a lovely pattern called Floral Cloche by Julie Bueno, which I decided to make without the flower on the side, because I just wanted a simple and warm hat.

The hat is basically just made up of trebles and double crochets (double crochets and single crochets for you Americans), the only changes I made was to drop the flower and to start off with a Magic Adjustable Ring instead of starting with a chain. It was a very quick and simple, but addictive hat to make, and I'm very pleased with it. So here are some pictures:

Have an inspiring week! :)

Othilie's Simple Scarf

In April I found a skein of lovely Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK in a lovely blue, which I had previously bought at Hobbycraft to practice stitches with, and i decided to make a scarf out of it. However this was before I had discovered Ravelry so I decided to make just make it out of Double Trebles, since it is a fast stitch and I needed practice, but as I started to get into it I felt like it was getting too wide so I added in some rows of Double Crochet to tighten it up a bit :) So I invented my own pattern, and I've decided to share it with you guys :) The scarf is finally done and measures 2m long :)

Marty Investigating the yarn :)

 I'm very pleased with my scarf and how it turned out, it is very soft and comfy and will be great when autumn comes

And as I promised you, my pattern:

Othilie’s Simple Scarf

This is a simple crochet scarf, which is suitable for crocheters of any skill :) Since the pattern is very simple it shows of a variegated yarn very well. For this scarf I used Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK in a blue colour, I needed 3 skeins for this scarf, measuring a total of 480m or 525 yards and 150 grams. The yarn calls for a 4 mm hook, but I wanted it slightly more airy, so I used a 6mm hook for this scarf. The finished scarf measures 2 meter long, but can be made to any size preferred.

Terminology:
ch = Chain
dc = Double Crochet (Single Crochet)
dtr = Double Treble (Treble)
British terminology (American terminology)

Pattern:
Worked back and forth.
Crochet 31 ch, dc in the 2^nd ch from the hook and dc in every ch untill the end, so that you end up with 30 double crochets. Turn.

Ch 1, dc in every stitch, (30 stitches). Turn.
*4 ch to start with, then double treble in each dc, (30 dtr including the chains). Turn.* Repeat between ** so that you have a total of 6 rows with double trebles.
*1 chain, dc in each dtr, (30dc). Turn.* Repeat between ** so that you have a total of 2 rows with dc.
Repeat 6 rows of dtr and 2 rows of dc, make sure you always have 30 stitches in a row and until the scarf is required length, ending in 2 rows of dc.
The 2 rows of dc in between is to tighten up the scarf so that it doesn’t get too loose or too wide.

Here you can see the stitches up close, Double Trebles and Double Crochet.

I'm letting the pattern be free because I don't want to earn money on it, all I want is for people to use the lovely art of crochet and to create wonderful things :) I hope all of you will enjoy your scarfs, I certainly will enjoy mine, it is SOOOO soft and cuddly!

Good luck :)

New blog, new hobby!

So I have restarted by blog, which have been inactive since 2009, and I have also reinvented it. The new blog comes out in new colours and instead of it being about me, it will be about crocheting and yarn and every now and then reviews of books, since I read A LOT on my Kindle.

 Since the last time I blogged I've met the man of my dreams, Neil, and his wonderful mum has taught me how to crochet. Since she taught me how to crochet I've gotten completely hooked, learnt a lot more crochet stitches and started my own yarn stash, which will get it's own blog post later. My first blog post will be about the first hat I did, which was for a K/CAL (Knitting and Crochet Along) for a group on Ravelry called A Modern Witch Knitters, which is a group for the fans of Debora Geary's book series called A Modern Witch (and her other works too :P)

 The K/CAL was to crochet or knit a slouchy hat, so I decided to go for a slouchy hat pattern I found on Ravelry called Waffle Cone Slouchy Hat by Julie King. It was a very quick and nice hat to make, but I chose to do it in a slightly thinner yarn than recommended and also a smaller hook, so my gauge did not fit, and therefor needed to adapt it slightly to make it fit, but it does fit perfectly on my head now :D And I am very pleased with it. It is a hat I can recommend others to make, especially crocheter at beginners level since it is an easy and well described pattern to follow.

 Here is a couple of pictures of the end result:

And this is the yarn I chose, which is a very soft and well spun yarn from Crofter and it is a chunky yarn, which required a 6.5mm crochet hook :)

All in all I'm very pleased with my hat, and can't wait for colder weather so I can properly try it out :)