Tutorial Tuesday: beanies for breast cancer

Hello!

I know that I promised an original knit hat pattern, but alas, I am in the process of moving and writing a ton of papers, so it will have to wait until November. But I do have a cute hat pattern from the blog Grow Creative for you (make sure to check out the rest of her blog)!

Photo from GrowCreative.blogspot.com

It is a lovely shell-pattern that is not too difficult to manage, even for a beginner. I wouldn't suggest this for a first project, but if you have done a project in the round and/or know how to do a double crochet stitch, you can manage this! I say this because I am a beginner and mine is coming along just fine! But, if you find that the shells are too challenging, you can go ahead and finish it off with double-crochet stitches.

You can find the pattern right here. I am sure she would love to know if you try it out, and I know I would love to hear about it too!

Here are a couple pictures of my progress, and some notes to help you through the shell stitches if this is your first try (I will apologize now for the varying color quality - these were all taken with my phone,  some at night with nasty CFL lighting, and some during the day with natural light...)

So, here is just the double crochet bit - this part is fairly easy, the only thing that might be confusing for a beginner is the joining of the stitches at the end of the round.

A note on the first round of shells: I ended up starting them in too close to my beginning chain, so if I were you, I would do what I did after I had to take all of my stitches out - count through your stitches the same way you will be putting the stitches in, i.e. one, two, five, one, two, one, one, two, five, etc... so that you can see where you will end. It will save you from possible frustration.

first round of shells

Here is a close-up of putting in the second row of shells.

beginning of second round of shells

At first I was concerned that it would be really difficult to put in the next round, but you are really just stacking the rows, with the short in-between stitches on top of a shell and the shells over the in-between stitches. You almost don't need to count...

two rows of shells

That is as far as I have made it through the pattern so far, but I will update the post once I am finished.

And finally, some notes on my materials:
I used a metal Boyle hook in the recommended size, 5mm (I prefer metal to plastic).
I used Vanna's Choice yarn in pink. This yarn tends to split a little, which can slow things down, but I do love the colors they offer...

Well, that is all that I have to say about this project/pattern.

Hope you enjoy this lovely pattern!

Stephanie
MWLP