All posts tagged red heart

Santa Hat Pattern

My sister-in-law asked me if I could create a Santa inspired hat (initially for New York SantaCon). She texted me a photo for inspiration, and I came up with this:

Sorry everyone, I’m not single.

I even remembered to write down the pattern!

Hat

Create a magic ring.
Round 1: Chain 3 (counts as first dc here and throughout; the first dc in each round should be a ch3!), 9 dc (10 dc)
Round 2: 2 dc in each dc (20 dc)
Round 3: *2dc in first dc, 1 dc in next dc* repeat from * to * until end (30 dc)
Round 4: *2 dc in first dc, 1 dc each in next 2 dc* repeat from * to * until end (40 dc)
Round 5: *2 dc in first dc, 1 dc each in next 3 dc* repeat from * to * until end (50 dc)
Rounds 6-12: 1 dc in each dc (50 dc)

Do not bind off after round 12!

Earflaps

Row 1: Turn, ch3 (does not count as first dc, here and throughout earflap), dc 7, turn
Row 2: ch3, dc 7, turn
Row 3: ch3, dc2tog, dc3, dc2tog, turn
Row 4: ch3, dc2tog, dc1, dc2tog, turn
Row 5: ch3, dc3, bind off

Count 20. join at 21st and repeat earflap pattern. (I would do row 1 of the second earflap, and then make sure it lines up to your own ears. This is what worked for me!)

Belt

**For this, I just worked the first row of sc in the 10th row of the hat. Since you’re working sc over dc (worked in the round, no less, so I had to mess around with stitch placement to get them to line up), I wouldn’t suggest this method. I mean, it looks fine, but it’ll be much easier to sc a black strip, and just whipstitch or sew it to attach. So, I will give the instructions for a black band.

Chain 51, turn
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc to end, ch1, turn (50sc)
Row 2: sc in each sc, ch1, turn (50sc)
Repeat row 2 three more times. Attach around hat (mine wound up spanning rows 8-10 of the hat)

Buckle

All you have to do here is surface slip stitch in a vaguely squareish/rectangular shape. Just make sure the top and bottom parts of the buckle are on the red part of the hat, and that the buckle is centered in the front of your head. My buckle was 5 stitches on the top and bottom, and 6 stitches on each side.

Here is a video on how to surface slip stitch: slip stitch surface: http://youtu.be/EJ8FI5PJfvk

Edging

With a fur yarn (I don’t know of any other than Lion Brand Fun Fur), sc all round the hat.

Pom Pom

I used the wrap method, and used width of DVD case and wrapped ~60-70 times. This turned out WAY TOO BIG and lead to 45 minutes of trimming and 15 minutes of vacuuming all the bits. I attached it  just by tying a knot on inside of hat.

This project on Ravelry

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by chickwithhooks on December 28, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by chickwithhooks on December 28, 2013

https://chickwithhooks.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/santa-hat-pattern/

The Mighty Frog & A Rebirth

Three or four years ago I made an afghan for my boyfriend. Since it is an early work I’ve come to hate it. The pattern is fine, but looking back I always thought it should have been wider.

Also there’s this

OMG I CAN'T EVEN

I’ve BEGGED for it to be thrown out or hid in a closet or something, but was always met with a stanch NO, so when I came across the Dusty Snowflake Throw, a light bulb went on – I could IMPROVE the afghan by DESTROYING it. And there would still be an afghan! A win-win situation, really. And, with the blessing of the afghan’s owner, I began The Mighty Frog.

It took almost two days for everything to come apart; I attribute this to the afghan’s age (the fibers have all rubbed together at this point and were a little knotted) and also because it was just kind of big. As I took everything apart, I learned WHY it came to be in such a terrible condition…well, I know it’s because what I did was completely wrong, but I couldn’t even figure out what I had done. But now as an older and wiser crocheter, I know not to make the same errors anymore, whatever they may have exactly been.

Getting started on a motif for the pattern was easy, and I got as far as completing the first row of snowflake motifs AND a row of the smaller motifs before I ran into problems. Even after watching the helpful videos posted on YouTube, I still couldn’t wrap my head on where to slip stitch for the next rows. I took a break for a few weeks, went back, and saw I had too many joins which was making it lumpy – this is MUCH easier to work on if you have a space you can lay it out on, so you can actually see what you’re doing. I tried like hell to blame it on the pattern, but it was 100% operator error.

Something else I find helpful is weaving in the end as you go. And by helpful, I mean “more likely to actually complete,” because there’s nothing I hate more than finishing an afghan only to find I have to weave in the ends of every square/motif that I’ve done.

This Project on Ravelry

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by chickwithhooks on February 6, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by chickwithhooks on February 6, 2012

https://chickwithhooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/the-mighty-frog-a-rebirth/

Ravelry CAL Afghan – February

February’s square was the Pineapple Blossom square from Ravelry’s dishclothdiaries.

I had a bit of drama with this one. First, I completed the entire square before realizing that the color I had chosen didn’t match the original square from January. So I frogged this, frogged the first January square, redid the January square in new colors, and then got back to this square again. About halfway through, I decided I was too good to use the pattern because, hey, I’d already done it once. This proved to be an awful idea, when I got to the last round and realized I was short a total of about 20 stitches. So, I pulled it apart AGAIN and finally, on my third try, I completed it for real.

I really like this pattern; the petals give the square a delicate look on what could be a solid afghan. I can’t wait for it to be December so I have an entire afghan!

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by chickwithhooks on February 14, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by chickwithhooks on February 14, 2011

https://chickwithhooks.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/ravelry-cal-afghan-february/

Bright Granny Square Bag

The boredom is strong with this one.

I haven’t been inspired to do a whole lot of crochet today. I have too many hats and scarves, and everything I’ve wanted to do reminded me of spring, and considering I live in New Jersey (in other words, SNOWPOCOLYPSIA), I felt like it was cheating. Then I decided I didn’t care and needed something to do, so I embarked on this brightly colored bag idea I had.

Inga’s Haekelbeutel has been at the top of free crochet projects on Ravelry for quite some time; I’ve had it in my queue for a few weeks as well. Granny squares are perfect stash busters, so I decided whenever I did get around to recreating this bag, I would use some of the bright colored yarn lying around the basement. I had a weekend to myself recently (normally spent at my boyfriend’s house, a place where my stash is not) and figured WHY THE HELL NOT, since I am so tired of the snow I don’t care if it counts as cheating or not.

The full list of the yarns I used is on the project page on Ravelry (scroll down a bit for a link), but it’s centered around Red Heart Ombre in Plum Pudding, along with Caron Simply Soft colors leftover from an afghan that I probably never finished (I should find that…). I had a bit of a problem putting it together, but there is a diagram showing how to do this, so my not being able to get it right on the first try was just ignorance and possibly wine. I actually really like how this turned out, but unless I were to line it, it’s something I would only use for, say, a carry-on for a plane, or a weekend getaway, due to the holes in the squares.

Here is an irrelevant closeup!

This project on Ravelry

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by chickwithhooks on February 8, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by chickwithhooks on February 8, 2011

https://chickwithhooks.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/bright-granny-square-bag/

My Brown Modern Cloche

I think it’s safe to say that anyone who crochets (or knits!) with regularity has a certain thing they make repeatedly. For some people, like a friend of my mother’s, it’s afghans. I know some knitters have made a ridiculous amount of socks. As I have previously posted about, I am a person of little patience, so my thing is accessories, mostly hats and scarves. As I have been crocheting for many years, I have been trying to steer clear of this category, due to the fact that I literally now own hats and scarves in just about every color. Except brown, apparently, which I realized at some point in between snow storms. (I live in the great state of New Jersey, and we’ve been getting slammed nearly once a week.) So, off to Ravelry in search of a hat to fit my criteria! (Okay, I don’t really have criteria as much as I have pet peeves concerning hat designs. Summer hats are for fashion, of course, but winter hats should cover your ears. I know this isn’t necessary for everyone, but I would rather have warm ears, or not have to wear a hat AND earmuffs. Ears are thin and sensitive and I happen to have seven pieces of metal in mine, so I want them covered without the backs of earring digging into my head.) ANYWAY, I fell in love with the Inauguration Chapeau the minute I saw it (I refer you to her website if you’re curious about the name).


(I have a picture of me wearing it from the front, but I look truly awful in it. I will try to remember to take another one someday.)

The only thing I changed with this pattern is that I made the bow detachable. Since my hair is brown, this color blends right into my head, so I thought hey, I could make a few different bows to add a flash of color so it won’t blend in with my head! To do this, I followed the pattern for the brim without the first ch25, and chained two panels instead of sc and connected this at the beginning. I continued to work in the round. To make the bow, I chained 50 or 60 and worked the brim again – then I just tied it on the hat.

This project on Ravelry

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by chickwithhooks on February 3, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by chickwithhooks on February 3, 2011

https://chickwithhooks.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/my-brown-modern-cloche/

Ravelry CAL Afghan – January

I believe I have mentioned in the past how terrible I am when it comes to large scale projects. While things like afghans certainly look ambitious (and therefore a conversation piece) and keep me snuggly and warm, I can’t help but avoid starting them, knowing that something like a hat will take a few hours. I mean, it took me two years to finish Drew Embrosky’s Flying Afghan (the squares were part of a crochet page-a-day calendar from 2006; I started the squares, misplaced the calendar, found the calendar years later and the finished; I only had to make up part of it!).

But lately, I’ve begun to notice that the zig zag afghan has seen better days. By which I mean, I have come to call the zig zag afghan “poopghan,” because where ever I attached a new color fell apart and I had to MacGyver it back into a sort of decent afghan, but I still hate looking at it. But since the boyfriend is sentimental and refuses to let me salvage it or throw it out (I HAVE SO MUCH SHAME), I’ve decided that the only other solution is to just make a new one.

So, a few days ago, I joined a group on Ravelry that picks an afghan square each month to complete, with the intentions of completing an afghan at the end of 2011. With no room to match any colors to, and since poopghan only gets used for laying around on the couch (in other words, not necessarily a central interior design piece), I decided to make this one a stash buster. I have lots (SO MUCH!!!!) pastel yarn; so especially considering I’m not a huge fan of pastels and want to get rid of some of this yarn, a pastel afghan it will be!

This month’s square was Maggie’s Square by none other than Drew Emborsky. So as it turns out, I’ve already made this square once, for the aforementioned flying afghan (I think on my version it’s the one on the bottom row, second from the left). I used Red Heart in Watercolor and Frosty Green, (Frost Green is one of the colors used in Watercolor, so they blend together and you can’t really differentiate) and I dipped into my Vanna’s Choice in Eggplant to jazz it up a bit. I’m interested to see what the next 11 squares will be, but I’m more interested to see what color combinations I’m going to be able to come up with using my ridiculous stash.

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by chickwithhooks on January 20, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by chickwithhooks on January 20, 2011

https://chickwithhooks.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/ravelry-cal-afghan-january/