Finished Latest Hat

 

This hat turned out absolutely lovely. I only had to use those 2 colors that mom had used to make a too small hat with. I actually have a small amount of each left over. I have started unraveling another hat. Note to me to take a picture tomorrow before I have it completely unraveled to show before and  after.  I think I’m about 20 hats away from 100, unless I haven’t written them all down, which is quite possible. 

Until next time…….happy crocheting ❤️🧶

Couple of Reworked Mom Hats and Another One In Progress

This weekend I have been reworking some "Mom hats" that I have been given.  My mom loves to crochet but, anymore,  she doesn't always make useable hats.  They probably look good to her and look like they would fit, when in reality, they may fit a baby doll.  I take them apart and use the yarn she has put together (she always makes double thick hats with 2 strands of yarn) and recreate them and make a single thick hat, most of the time.  This weekend the first 2 I made were double thick.  If I remember on the next on I re-do I will take a before and an after picture. Usually I do have to add some yarn of my own, or use some from another one of her hats. 

This is the first one I remade.  This one is a double thick hat.  I added some of my own yarn at the top and used some white from another all white hat she sent my way.

This one is another double thick hat and more of the white from the first hat I redid (which I do still have some left to use on another hat) and a yellow/tan combination she had put together on another too small hat.  There's some of the yellow/tan left as well.

This is my current rework.  Both of these yarns were on the same hat.  I just unraveled it and am making a single thick hat (usually my preference).  I will probably need to add some yarn to it, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

No worries I still have the knit hat and the loom knit hat in the yarn bowl.  I haven't forgotten them.  I guess it's just time for something a little different.

 

Trying Something New for Lunch

 

I tried a couple Tuna Creations for lunch the other day. The other flavor was Zesty Lemon Pepper. I think I liked the lemon better than the Herb n Garlic. I ate them with chicken flavored crackers.  Even though it doesn’t state it was “tuna salad” that’s what I was expecting.  Overall it was ok. Something I may try again sometime. Not a bad lunch for about $4 (Dollar Tree prices) 

Progress on the Loom Knit Hat

 

I’ve made a good bit of progress on the loom knit hat despite it being crazy busy at work so far this weekend. Only 1 day left 😊.  I have gotten the first 50 rows knitted. The other half will be solid light blue. I think I may have a row or 2 left with the current color, so I will accommodate and add that many extra rows  to my 100. I’m hoping to have both sides even. We shall see how it turns out. 

I Wanted a No Think Project for the Weekend

 

I finished the baby bib I was working on. It's a free pattern on Ravelry if you want to check it out.  It is an easy pattern.  You just need to know how to knit and the yarn over increase and how to decrease by knitting 2 together.  

Here's the cute button I added to it for the strap.

Today (Friday) I had planned to work on this knit hat. I am real close to starting the decrease for the crown of the hat.  I have about an inch to go, however I didn't feel like concentrating on knitting with needles, SO.....

I started this loom knit hat.  It will be a scrap hat.  I am making it a double thick loom hat, like a knitting machine hat (like an addi).  I shared about doing this a little over a year ago.  This time I am doing 100 rows instead of the 90 I did before. 😀

This is a total no-think project for me.  I only need to remember to add a row on my row counter each round.  If I forget one, or two, it wont make that big of a deal.  

A No Curl Tunisian Crochet Hat (The decrease) Final Part 3

Hey friends I’m back with the final tunisian  hat update. I finished the decrease/crown of the hat.  

I made the decrease with tunisian simple stitch. Why? Because I haven’t figured out how to decrease with the honeycomb stitch.  😢 I also ran out of the first 2 colors so had to add some new ones to finish the hat.

You will need to know TSS and how to decrease with the forward stitch.

You should have 80 stitches. We are decreasing starting with 16. Each row decrease by 1 until you are down to 7 stitches between the decrease stitch  

 TSS 14 and TSS 15 & 16 together around 

TSS 13 and TSS 14 & 15 together around 

TSS 12 and TSS 13 & 14 together around 

Continue decreasing until you get to TSS 5 and TSS 6 & 7 together

Bind off as usual with the return stitch color. Snip the main color leaving a tail long enough to tie and weave in. Once you get the bind off with the return color finished, pull up a loop about 12” and weave it through the loop, of the return stitch, that’s closest to you.   When you make it all the way around drop the tail inside the hat and turn the hat inside out. Pull tight and tie off and secure with the main color tail. Weave in ends, or finish the hat however you finish them. Me I usually tie a couple knots and snip. 

I hope this makes sense to you.  I'm no expert in pattern writing.  I mostly just use "chicken scratch" as I call it.  LOL!

If you have questions, leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer it.

A No Curl Tunisian Crochet Hat (The Body) Part 2

 Hey friends I’m back with a tunisian hat update. I finished the body.  I decided to do a honeycomb stitch. 

If you need help with this stitch here’s a video by Mikie from the Crochet Crowd explaining the basic concept, if you need a visual. 

You will need to know these basic tunisian stitches:  TSS (tunisian simple stitch) and TPS  (tunisian purl stitch)

If not here’s  my rough written version 

ROW 5: alternate TSS and TPS and pulling your return stitch through as necessary. 

ROW 6: alternate TPS and TSS and pulling your return stitch through as necessary.

since we have an even number stitches stitch 80 and stitch 1will be the same stitch on each row.  If you end with a TSS the beginning stitch will be a TSS same if you end with a TPS, the beginning stitch will be a TPS.  *see my note below*

Repeat rows 5 and 6 about 10’moremtimes or until your hat measures about 6” including the brim.  

(for me about 3 honeycomb  rows = 1”)

*the note below*

This wonky stitch at the end/beginning can be avoided,  however you will need to make a few adjustments. It’s not that big of a deal, even for me, who dislikes things to look wonky, but with multi colors I don’t think it’s not that noticeable. can you see it in the photo above?   Maybe sometime I will post doing honeycomb in the round without the wonkiness. 

If you would like to try it yourself you will need to start with an odd number, 79 loops.  

For the decrease (watch for the next post) you need an even number so will need to increase by 1 loop or just “skip” one of the decreases on the first row in the next part. Hopefully this isn’t too confusing. 

BE watching for the post for decreasing for the top of the hat. 

I will combine all the instructions into one post once I have finished the hat.

Starting A No Curl Tunisian Crochet Today (The Brim)

I started this tunisian crochet hat yesterday. I probably shouldn’t have because I already have 2 Knit wips i want to finish. I have to kinda concentrate on the knit but tunisian…..not much thinking.  

I tried making a video yesterday showing how I started this but it would have been too big of a file for my mobile device that I was recording with.  It’s pretty simple really.  

Here’s my beginning instructions: you will need to know ETSS (extended tunisian simple stitch), basic chain and knowledge of using a double end hook. 

Size I double end hook

2 different colors of  4 weight yarn (about 2 oz total) (I’m using scrap yarn)

I make an adult small  size hat which I donate to a local preschool 

Ch 80 (you can use either main color or return stitch color. 

(I used return stitch color for mine this time)

Carefully join to make a ring. Make sure  you don’t twist the chain when joining. If your unsure how to do that heres an easy video from Mikie at the Crochet  Crowd. 

If you use your return color, your first stitch will be that color. If you used your main color for the chain it will still be your first stitch.  Do Not make the first stitch an etss stitch. 

ROW1: Pull up an ETSS loop in your remaining chain stitches, (I do not use the back bump, just the single loop like regular crochet) and join your return stitch color and pull through as needed. You should have 1 tss and 79 etss on your first row.  I like to add a stitch marker to my first stitch so I know where I started. 

ROW 2-4: ETSS every stitch around, pulling return stitch through as needed. You should have 80 stitches total on each row.   This gave me a 2” no curl brim on my hat. 

 

I am doing something fancy for the body of this hat. Im doing the honeycomb stitch for about 4”, to make a total of 6” before I start my decrease for the top of the hat. 

Stay tuned for the hat body update. I will post when I have finished that part. 🧶♥️

Tried a new knit thing and I'm not happy with the results

Remember this knit Ross Hat from a couple posts ago? Well I finished it.

I think it turned out pretty cool!  However since I was doing a 4 melon,1 white,1 melon,1 white, row repeat I decided to try to make a seamless jog when I switched between the melon and white colors.  I watched a couple different YouTube videos and tried both methods, but don't really like how mine turned out.  I also started snipping and tieing the white in between the 4 rows of melon but eventually just carried the white up.  That wasn't as bad, but it too needs more practice.

Here is the section of the hat I tried the 2 different seamless jogs.  they are to the left in the circle.  While they do look seamless, I don't like the way it looks.  I think I need to re-watch the videos again or maybe even find another one, if possible and try the seamless jogs again.

I do have another knit hat in progress, only 2 rows in so far.  It will also be a 2 color hat.  I haven't decided how I will be striping it or if I will do something completely different with the 2 colors this time.  

I was thinking maybe trying to make hearts, but the "V's" look to me like they are going the wrong way for that. Am I seeing them wrong?  I'm thinking I would need to make a double thick hat or make one top down instead of bottom up. (top down may be fun to try, I may try to check that possibility out too.)

This was a game changer for me!

Last year some time I was given some split peas.  I have never had split peas and wasn't sure what to do with them.  This past weekend I decided to try and see what I could do with them besides split pea soup.   Split pea soup just doesn't look nor sound appealing to me.  I have tried cooking them in the microwave and that just didn't work as well as I thought it should have.  I was looking for crockpot recipes for cooking them as that is the easiest way for me to make things that require a longer cook.  Every recipe I found said to rinse and soak them for 6+ hours.  Perfect! I could soak them overnight.  I found recipes for stir frying them and making pea and pasta salads.  So that was my plan, soak them and make some sort of pea salad with some ham I have in the freezer and whatever else I could add in.

Fast forward to the next morning.  OH MY GOODNESS! I drained and tasted those soaked peas and was instantly in LOVE with them!  No added flavor needed.  They taste just like fresh peas from the garden, when I was a little girl.  YA I finished the first batch off and soaked another batch only bigger.  I bought some carrots from the store and now I have raw carrots and peas.  MMMM! Just like fresh from the garden.

WE have also been trying to eat healthier snacks.  This week we bought some blueberries on discount, then went back the next night and got some black grapes and a few apples.  This bowl of grapes and blueberries are our snack tonight.  The apples will be my snacks this weekend.  I may even have some peanut butter with them.  The blueberries and grapes were hubby's request, and he may have some apple too, providing they don't have too much of a chemical taste.   I don't like the chemical taste but can tolerate it.  Hubby on the other hand chooses not to eat them.  I don't want to waste the food. LOL!

 

Here are some recent finished projects for February

I've been a bit busy with life since that snow we had a couple weeks ago and haven't had time to make a video.  Here are some things  have made this past month and a couple new projects I am currently working on.  I have included the pattern links I have, all patterns are free.  (Links open in a new window)

Crochet Woven Heart

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/woven-heart

Mini Mitts Potholder

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-mitts-potholder

Crochet Basket Weave cloth

Tunisian Crochet Basket Weave Cloth

Tunisian Crochet hat, in the round, top down

Crochet Basic Striped Beanie

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-striped-beanie-2

Crochet Basic Striped Beanie

Crochet Basic Striped Beanie

THese are the 2 current WIPs I have.  The hat is almost finished.

Knit Ross Hat

https://smellslikeyarn.com/product/ross-hat/

Knit Grandmother's Favorite Baby Bib

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/grandmothers-favorite-baby-bib