My patterns on Crochet Me

The first  patterns I ever wrote are available for free on Crochet Me. They're both headband/hat things that let you stick your hair out the top. If you don't know what I mean then you better check them out!

Bobble Head - Crochet Me

Morphy - Crochet Me

Spinning a Yarn....

...Literally! Today I made my first ever handspun yarn so I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. I started off with some pink fluffy stuff for practice, no idea what it was and I ended up with this

Not bad for a first try I thought! Then I set the twist and made my first ever skein. Ta da!

It's not perfect but I was feeling confident enough to dig out the shetland fibre I bought at the Manchester Yarn Day and after a bit of drafting I had a lovely pile of purple fluff (and purple hands!) So I spun that up too which was bit more difficult since the fibres seemed much more coarse than the last lot, and it's currently hanging upstairs to dry. This is the stuff, from local spinner and dyer Krafty Koala. The colourway is called Butterfly. Lovely.

So after a rather productive day I went in to the kitchen and made an apple crumble. Now that's another first!

Web of Winter hat

I decided I've been spending too much time knitting recently (now that I seem to be getting better at it!) so I picked up my poor neglected hooks the other day to make myself a new winter hat, something nice and chunky and warm for venturing out in all the snow we've had.





You will need a 6.5mm hook and a 5.5mm hook, and approximately 160 metres of chunky weight yarn (I used James C. Brett marble chunky)

This pattern is written in UK terms

Abbreviations:
Sl st - Slip stitch
Dc - Double crochet
Tr - Treble crochet
FPtr - Front post treble crochet
FPdbltr - front post double treble crochet.
ch - chain
blo - back loop only

Using 6.5mm hook Ch 4, sl st in first ch to form a ring

Rnd 1: Ch 3 (counts as first tr), work 11 tr in ring, sl st to the top of ch 3 (12 tr total)

Rnd 2: Ch 3, fptr around post of the starting ch3 from the previous row
-tr in blo of next st, and fptr around the tr that is located one row below
repeat until you have 12 fpdc’s. sl st to the top of ch 3.

Rnd 3: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, *fptr around the post of the fptr one row below
tr in blo of next 2 sts repeat from * around, ending the
round with one tr after last fptr. Sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnd 4: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, fptr around the post of the fptr one row below
*tr in blo of next 3 sts repeat from * around, ending the
round with 2 tr after last fptr. Sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnd 5: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, *fptr around the post of the fptr one row below
tr in blo of next 4 sts repeat from * around, ending the
round with 3 tr after last fptr. Sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnd 6: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, *fptr around the post of the fptr one row below
tr in blo of next 5 sts repeat from * around, ending the
round with 4 tr after last fptr. Sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnd 7: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, *fptr around the post of the fptr one row below
tr in blo of next 3 sts, tr tog over next 2 sts, sk next st (top of FPtr) repeat from * around, ending the round with 2 tr and tr tog after last fptr. Sk next st and sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnd 8: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, *fpdbltr around the post of the fptr one row below
tr in blo of next 4 sts sk next st (top of Fptr) repeat from * around, ending the
round with 3 tr after last fptr. Sk next st and sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnd 9: Sl st into next st. Ch 3, *fpdbltr around the post of the fpdbltr one row below
tr in blo of next 4 sts sk next st (top of Fpdbltr) repeat from * around, ending the
round with 3 tr after last fptr. Sk next st and sl st to the top of starting ch 3.

Rnds 8-13: Repeat rnd 9

Rnd 14: using 5.5mm hook ch1, dc in each st around. Sl st to join

Rnd 15: Repeat rnd 14

Rnd 16: ch 1 *dc in next 8 sts, dc tog over next 2 sts. Repeat from *around sl st to join.

Rnd 17: ch 1 dc in each st around.

Rnds 18-24: Repeat rnd 17

End off and enjoy!