Tuetorial Tuesday: Simple Slouchy Beanie

It's been a while since I have posted a tutorial, and I had recently promised one on a seed-stitch cup cozy. Well, I used that cozy today and it was too big for a standard paper coffee cup. It fit around, but it would slide, and eventually stretched a bit and fell off when I set the cup down... So, I finished this post instead, which has been pending and unfinished for a while now...

Some of you may remember my post on Instagram several weeks ago with a beanie pattern I came up with. I was inspired by this video on making your joining stitches in double-crochet in the round nearly invisible - I was quite interested in this as I had just made a number of beanies for Christmas and was not really pleased with the gap at joining. So, here is the result of my experiment:

The Simple Slouchy Beanie uses double crochet, single crochet, and slip stitch, in the round. There are increases and decreases, but nothing fancy.

Tutorial Tuesday: the simple cowl

I am proud to offer you an original pattern and tutorial this week!

It turns out that I have become rather hooked on crochet! I ended up watching a number of tutorials on YouTube recently and I got inspired to try my hand at making a cowl.

To get an idea for size I wrapped one of my scarves around my neck to see how long I would like it. Then I took it off and grabbed my measuring tape - it was somewhere in the area of 30"-36". As I was making the chain I checked the length along the way by wrapping it around my neck. I started off with a 6.5mm hook and two strands of worsted weight yarn, but it was much too stiff! So, I unraveled, scoured the internet for other cowl patterns and found that a 10mm hook is ideal when using two strands of yarn, and I happened to have a 10mm hook on hand! So I started up again and it turned out great!

The pattern uses the following stitches:

SS (slip stitch)
SC (single crochet)
HDC (half double crochet)
DC (double crochet)

Matterials*:

1 skein* of Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn (Michael's brand)
     (note: I just made this with Caron Simply Soft and I love it!)
1 10mm crochet hook
1 stitch marker*
1 large-eye yarn needle
Tape measure
Scissors


Method:

Using two strands of yarn at the same time, the outside and inside strands, make a chain that is approx. 32" (or desired length) and join with a SS, taking care not to twist your chain.

Row 1.   SC into each chain, marking the final stitch with your stitch marker.

Row 2.   Chain one (don't turn, you are working in the round) and HDC for the entire row. Mark your final stitch. SS to join to the beginning of your row.

Row 3.   Chain 2 and DC into every stitch. Mark your final stitch. SS to join to the beginning of your row.

Row 4.   Chain 1 and HDC into every stitch. Mark your final stitch. SS to join to the beginning of your row.

Row 5. Same as 3

Rows 6-10. Continue alternating between HDC and DC, as in the rows 4 (HDC) and 3 (DC), ending with the HDC.

Row 11.   SC into each stitch, marking your final stitch. You will not need to "join."

Row 12.   SS into each stitch around, taking care not to make the stitches too tight. Bind off, leaving a tail, pull tight and sew in the tail.

Tighten the tail from the slip knot where you began and sew in the tail.

Your finished product should be about 18" flat, 36" around, and about 7" tall.

* 1 skein refers to the solid color ball with 277 yards of yarn - other styles of Impeccable have fewer yards of yarn. If you us a different yarn you might need more than one skein (i.e. Vanna's Choice is only 145 yds., so you would need two skeins). UPDATE: I just made a cowl with Caron Simply Soft and I LOVE IT - it has such a nice weight to it, and the yarn is set up for pulling from the outside and the inside for convenience. It also has more yardage than Impeccable, so you can make the cowl a bit taller if you like. For a stitch marker I typically use a paperclip, but in the pictures above I just used a strand from the tail. You can use a piece of yarn in a different color, a safety pin... whatever you have.

You could also make this 60"+ so that you can wrap it twice. And you might want to try stacking stitches rather than doing every-other, or throw in some single-crochets, or maybe even the treble stitch.  Have fun with it!

If you have any questions regarding the pattern, please leave a comment or send me an email at TheMadeWithLoveProject {at} gmail {dot} com.

If you try this pattern I would love to see the pictures! Tag me on Instagram or share a link in the comments. Thanks!

Enjoy!

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