Halloween

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!

I just love Halloween! It is bigger than Christmas around our house! We go all out with decorations and turn our garage into a haunted tunnel of creepiness! There are witches and bats, spiders and clowns, and all manner of spooky things. 

So I am sure it comes as no surprise that I love Halloween crochet patterns! This year there were so many good ones that came out! But I decided I really wanted to make 2 specifically for a Halloween blog post; the Rustic Doily Pumpkin by Meg Made With Love and the Halloween Sampler Headband by Snappy Tots! Both ended up being really great patterns! 

So first I made the Rustic Doily Pumpkin 

Materials needed for this pumpkin are

1. Worsted Weight Yarn 
2. Size I hook
3. Polyfil stuffing

For the Doily

1. Size 9 (1.4mm) hook Meg links to a great beginner set on her blog
2. Cotton Crochet Thread (size 10) I used black sock yarn (fingering weight) because I couldn't find my black size 10 crochet thread, the stash monster must have ate it)

To complete the project

1. Yarn needle
2. Stick or other "Stem" 
3. Hot glue gun
4. Any other decor you want to add (Raffia, Burlap, Ribbon...etc)
5. Sewing pins

So I started right in on the pumpkin....(Yes I know Meg, the pattern said to do the doily first) I felt like I could just finish the pumpkin really quick then tackle the doily....until I got to round 10....where it says to attach the doily before completing the pumpkin!! So then I set the pumpkin aside and started the doily! 

DOILY it can be a scary word for a crocheter, thoughts of intricate pineapples or rosette patterns that take hours and hours...DON'T PANIC!! Meg did an amazing job of writing up a beautiful yet simple doily for this pumpkin! I didn't find it to be difficult at all, every round uses very basic stitches and it actually made up very quickly. I finished mine in just a few hours and I think it would have taken less time if it weren't for my fibromyalgia making my hands hurt worse in the evenings. 

I did mess up in one spot on the doily but by the time I noticed there was NO way I was frogging 6 rows to fix it. I decided it was for me (not an ordered product) so it didn't have to be perfect. I know I can spot the error in pictures of the doily but after I attached it to the pumpkin and did the shaping it is well hidden. 

The pumpkin itself is super easy! Its worked with 2 strands of worsted and turned out really nice! I love how Meg did the shaping and it really is a stand out decor piece now! I hope to make the rest of her rustic pumpkins to create a center piece for my Thanksgiving dinner table. 

HALLOWEEN SAMPLER HEADBAND

I love this pattern! It was so easy! Snappy Tots is one of my favorite designers and always my go to when I need something fun! 

Materials for this project are definitely easy

1. Worsted weight yarn in a variety of colors
2. Size I Hook
3. 6 Tiny black buttons (I got some black sew on gems from Joann Fabric and I think they look great)
4.  Yarn needle
5. Sewing needle and thread ( to attach buttons) 

This headband was so fast and easy it took about 30 minutes to hook up the base headband, and I could probably do a single colored one in 20 minutes easy! If you need a quick basic headband this pattern is great!! The colors and features that take this from headband to 100% Halloween are so fun!! I loved doing the Bride of Frankenstein's Monster, her hair is just fabulous! I was very concerned when sewing it on that it would feel bulky or lumpy on that side with how it folds over the top, but It really isn't noticeable at all! 

The hardest part to do on this headband was with out a doubt the embroidery of the mouths and spider legs. Embroidery is not a strong skill of mine, that said these elements were simple enough that I think they turned out really nice! 

The buttons were tricky, not to sew on but to find. My local Joann's didn't have any regular buttons small enough, but I really like the sew on gems from Friendly Findings that I ended up getting. 

 Overall this is a very easy pattern. I think it would be a great first character project for a beginning crocheter. It's not overly involved with little pieces to attach, but it really ends up looking adorable!

I hope you enjoyed my little Halloween post! And I hope you'll go visit Meg Made With Love and Snappy Tots and give their patterns a try! I know I will be making Meg's Homebody Sweater and Heidi's Halloween Sampler Scarf Next!!

Jellybun Hat by Snappy Tots!

I love this pattern by Snappy Tots, my 12 year old was begging for a bun hat since she has started wearing high ponytails or a messy bun every day to school. Its getting cool and she wanted the warmth of a hat without having to take down her hair or try to stuff it into one of her slouchy hats.
I was really busy with knight hats and the baby aviator and really just wanted a fast, reliable, free pattern.
Now let me tell you there are A LOT of messy bun hat patterns out there! Search Ravelry for Messy Bun and you get 542 crochet patterns (oh there are knitted patterns too, over 100!) and then narrow it to free and there are still 168!! My mind was boggled!! How do I choose? I don't really want to look at each one and read the comments and project notes to find one that will be fast and well written.....

And then I remembered!! Snappy Tots did a bun hat!! YES!!! Oh I dearly love her patterns, this was the solution I had been needing! So off I ran to snappy-tots.com to find the Jellybun hat!
This was exactly what I needed! And made with very on hand items I jumped right in.

Materials Needed

1. Worsted Weight Yarn
2. Crochet hook size I 
3. A Yarn Needle
4. Scissors 

I love that this is worsted weight, I have tons in my stash! An I hook is a great size for late evening crocheting when my hands are tired and sore due to my fibromyalgia. 

This hat took about an hour! Start to finish! and my daughter loves it and all her friends want one (I learned long ago to just say no to all the friends!!) 

So if you need a fast, reliable bun hat pattern I highly suggest the Jellybun Hat! To add it to your ravelry queue click here. 

I have made quite a few projects in the last month and I am excited to share the patterns with you and let you know how they worked up for me!

First was Little Lindy's Aviator By Salena Baca. It was a free pattern offered by Red Heart Yarns on their site here. It can also be found here on Ravelry.

It worked up really nicely. I like the layout of red heart patterns. I worked the forehead flap in pipsqueak by Bernat, it turned out super super cute! It was a bit difficult to see the stitches in the pipsqueak yarn but totally worth it for how it turned out!

Some things to know about this pattern

1. There really isn't a yardage given. It just says you'll need a skein of the heather gray and one of soft white. I made the largest size, child, and I didn't use even half of the heather gray, which was 236 yds total. The pipsqueak I maybe used a quarter of the skein. It really doesn't take much. I think you could easily get 2 complete hats from the yarn required. 
2. The way the pdf opens in landscape view makes the print very small which can be hard to read if you print the pattern, I chose to save the download on my ipad so I could zoom in to make the print larger. 
3. You may just squeal at the cuteness of this hat! I really can't wait to see this on the baby it was ordered for!! And because it looks silly on my adult foam head.

Over all I really liked this pattern and will definitely use it again. 

Ok this order also included a couple of knight helmet hats! I love how these turned out!! 

The pattern is Knight Hat by Adriana Bon which I found on Ravelry. This is a free pattern. Now normally I have a few things I look for when picking a pattern

• What the customer asked for - This may sound simple but really its the first requirement for a pattern, how well it fits what was asked for. Sometimes I will get sent a picture of a cute knitted hat....then I have to find a crochet pattern that is as close to the knitted picture as possible. And that isn't always easy to do!
• The designer - This is a biggie for me, I like to use patterns by designers I know. This makes it easier to work up because then I already know their writing style and what mistakes to watch for (yes even the best designers sometimes make mistakes...it happens...I don't judge too harshly on that) it seems like 4-5 new designers pop up every day so I really try to go with tried and true designers I have worked patterns by before, just to save myself from headaches and repeated frogging.
• Projects made from the pattern - especially when I am looking on Ravelry I look for patterns with at least a few finished projects, or for the pattern photos to be of different projects made from that pattern (this lets me know its been tested) If a pattern has no finished projects and only one set of photos it concerns me that it is not a well tested pattern and may have errors. 
• Cost - I know for a lot of people cost is first priority, but for me I would rather pay for a well tested pattern from a reputable designer than grab the first freebie I find. However I have found some of my very favorite designers by trying one of their free patterns!! 

All these things taken into consideration and I still ended up using 

• a free pattern
• an unknown designer
• with no photos of finished projects
• only one pattern photo (which suggests to me no testing)

But this is not a horror story! Were there some errors? Yes. Were they deal breakers? No!! This pattern is a pretty straight forward beanie pattern with some shaping around the neck. It is offered in 2 styles; using hdc or dc, and offered in a wide range of sizes. 

I chose to use the hdc style and made it in two different sizes as was requested in the order, adult small and adult large.

Some things I liked about this pattern were; It was written out nicely, it had stitch counts at the end of each row, it had clear notes about it not being worked in joined rounds, rather it was worked in a spiral, I really like how the crest is worked and folded in half, making it nice and stiff on top of the hat, and it had a nice drawing of how to rejoin in the right place to do the neck piece. 

However there were a few things that were issues for me. The stitch count for the increases on the adult small were off. It said the last increase round (rnd 9) leaves you with 70 stitches however the math doesn't add up to 70 it only works out to 68. I did finish the hat at the 68 stitches and it still fits nicely.

Also the yardage states 300-400 yards, this hat maybe used 200 yards and that was at the largest size. 

For the crest there is multiple stitch counts given depending on the hat size, I found that the medium length (toddler) was fine for both the adult small and adult large. 

Over all I am very glad I gave this pattern a try! I will let the designer know about the error on the stitch count and let her know how much I enjoyed her pattern! I am always glad to find a free pattern that works out so nicely. 

If you are ever in need of a Knight Hat I highly recommend this pattern!