Another tam hat

I've been really into tam hats. Which is funny, because I used to hate hats and had no desire to make any. Tam hats and berets seem to be popular right now, though, and after having seen a couple, I got on a kick of knitting and crocheting them. I'm faster at crocheting, so those are the hats I've finished first, but I do have knitted tams on my needles, too.

I tried this pattern before, but it didn't turn out right somehow. I thought it might be the kind of yarn I used or that I couldn't find the hook the pattern specified anywhere, so I used one that was a millimeter larger. I ripped out the first one, then tried again with some Lion Brand Homespun yarn instead. I liked this result MUCH better.


With these kinds of hats, I prefer something bigger and flopper, so I like this one better than the wool one I posted about earlier, even though it's not as soft and bouncy, really.

In truth, I didn't follow the pattern very well... I ended up going it alone on the second row or so, but if you want to make a similar hat for yourself, the original pattern is located here: http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-soft-tam-beret.html

Ribbed Tam Hat

I have a health condition that has caused my hair to thin out. It's been affecting me since I was a teenager, and I figure it'll only keep getting worse despite all my efforts. But rather than despair over it, I'm looking for a silver lining. Hey, it's an excuse to knit and crochet lots of cute hats, right? ;)

For this hat, I used this free pattern: http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/phannie/phannie.html
I did, however, change the first few rows because I didn't like how they were turning out. It wasn't very drastic, though.

Here's how it turned out:

I look a little dejected in the first photo because I was tired and had just gotten home from work... and someone had hurt my feelings.

I forgot to take a picture of it while it was blocking, so I don't have a picture of the very top of it. But it looks very much like the top view photo shown with the pattern I linked to. My only gripe is that after blocking it, it left a "ridge" along the side that makes it look lumpy. Not really much I can do about that, though. Even though that happened, it still looks better over all after having been blocked.

I used a 100% wool yarn called Luxor, which is an Italian yarn. It's really light and soft. I love it! Wish it was sold in the States. I happened to find 2 balls of it at a thrift shop.

Running Roses

I have a lot of yarn. A LOT of it. I've been trying to bust out my stash for two years now. One of the results of that stash busting endeavor is this bedspread:




It turned out prettier than I had expected it to. It's basically just 140 tri-colored granny squares joined together with "lattice". I liked it so much that it's been on my bed ever since it was made.

Somehow, I expect to be making one of these for my mom when she moves up here this summer...

Cloud Nine

It's been quite some time since I've posted any of my finished work here, so I decided I would start off getting caught up by posting one of my favorite shawls. I've done very few shawls, though I am planning to make more. You could say I've "grown up" when it comes to my yarn craft, I suppose. I want to make wearable and useful items now, rather than so many blankets and toys. This shawl was done for a friend of mine as a commission some time ago.



The yarn I used here was from Hobby Lobby. It's Yarn Bee's Lambie Pie. Personally, I would never buy this yarn for myself. While it's cuddly soft and has cute little boing-boing curls in it, it's a devil to work with. You can't see your stitching and the curls get tangled up with each other, so if you make a mistake, it's almost impossible to take back out again. In the end, it turned out alright.

I almost want to make another shawl like this one for myself. But I can't think of what yarn I would want to use for it. I like the fluffy look and feel, but I hate working with that stuff!

Work, work, work!

Lately, I've been working quite a lot. There's an up and a down to that. The upside is that I make more income. The downside is that I don't have a lot of time to spend on doing the crafty things I love to do.

I do have things I would like to post about, but they'll have to wait for now. Hopefully my hours will slack off a little bit. But not *too* much.

Still Hookin'!

It's been a long time since I've updated my blog, which I do apologize for. I'll be working on some things to post here pretty soon, I hope.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has used my patterns. I noticed that my 8-pointed round ripple is listed in the pattern library on Ravelry! I hope that everyone is enjoying it. I did make a correction to that pattern in row #5. Thankfully it doesn't seem like the mistake affected anyone too much.

I've taken up knitting recently, so I may be adding some of those types of projects, too. I have something in mind concerning the combination of knitting and crochet for a scarf. If I can make it work, I'll work out a pattern and post it here for anybody who would like to make it.

Thanks for coming by my blog!

A star-ghan for a friend and a rectangle stash buster!

Been a while since I posted anything. Moving got in the way, and I haven't had a lot of time to post here until now.

Since coming to Minnesota from Mississippi, I've done a few things. These are the first couple of projects I'd completed since the move!

My friend is having a baby. She'd seen my star-ghans and had wanted one for her soon to be. I had some yellow and light blue yarn in my stash, as well as a skein of pastel multicolor, so I put them together and they turned out lovely! I sent it to her along with my Baby Blue afghan as a bonus.

I still had a ton of yarn in my stash (and still do, to be honest), so I picked out a few colors that seemed to go together well that I'd never be able to use in any other projects and started working on a granny-ghan. Instead of making the usual square type that I've made many times already, I went ahead and tried for a rectangle shape. I'm told that it DOES look rectangular in shape, but I'm missing it, I think. I should have made the inner square longer. That would've given it a more elongated shape, I figure. Maybe next time.