Women’s crochet basic slouchy hat

This is a very easy women’s slouchy hat to crochet. I used the free pattern by PDDesigns (click here for pattern). This pattern was well written and very easy to follow; suitable for a beginner.

For this slouchy hat, I used Paton’s Cosmos 12 ply yarn (50g, 85m, 47% wool and 50% acrylic and 3% polyester). This yarn was easy to work with and produced a slouchy hat with a very soft  finish.

Using a 6mm hook, the hat used just over one ball of yarn.

Although it is difficult to see clearly in the picture, the yarn has a nice shiny silver thread through parts of it. The yarn is also self striping, which I really liked.

Women’s crochet cloche hat

This is an easy women’s cloche hat to crochet.

For this hat, I used Lincraft’s Lucciola 12 ply yarn (50g, 48m, 60% wool and 40% acrylic) and Lincraft’s Merrijig 12 ply yarn (50g, 64m, 100% wool). These yarns were easy to work with and produced a hat with a soft yet chunky finish.

Using a 6mm hook, the hat used two balls of the Lucciola yarn (for the body of the hat) and a small amount of the Merrijig yarn (for the rim). I would have preferred to make the entire hat in the Lucciola yarn, however I did not have enough yarn and the colour was sold out at my local store. Luckily, I found a matching colour yarn for the rim.

Pattern:

I used the excellent 1920s Great Gatsby Inspired Cloche Hat Crochet Pattern provided by Hopeful Honey (click here for pattern).

The end product is a very comfortable hat that has good stretchiness.

Women’s crochet scarf using Dentelle pattern

This is an easy scarf pattern by Shara Lambeth (click here for pattern). It makes up light and drapey using a fine 8 ply yarn and 3.5 mm hook. This type of pattern is great when you’re not sure if you have enough yarn for a long scarf because you just decide the width and then keep crocheting until the yarn runs out.

For this scarf, I used Lincraft’s Marmaris yarn (100g (550m), 80% acrylic 10% mohair 10% angora effect,  fine 8 ply maybe 6 ply?, colour grape). Recommended needle size 3.75mm. This was a nice yarn to work with, and created a soft drapey finish that I’m very pleased with.

Using a 3.5mm hook, and starting with 39 chain, the scarf used 1 ball of yarn, and had a finished size of 7 inches wide and 65 inches long.

This pattern is suitable for any size yarn or hook. Simply start with any number of chain divisable by 7 plus 4, which gives the desired width, and then work the pattern to the desired length.

The scarf is really soft and drapes beautifully. It is also soft enough to tie in a loose knot or just fold and wrap.

I like crocheting scarfs on the train because they’re small and the patterns are easily remembered so you don’t need a pattern open on your lap. Because I used a 3.5mm hook for this scarf, it provided many train hours of entertainment.

Women’s crochet fingerless gloves

These gloves were made using a fabulous pattern by Maaike van Koert (click here for pattern). The instructions are very good and include lots of photographs to assist understanding.

The pattern uses 4 ply yarn and a 3mm hook. I used 5 ply yarn instead, plus the 3mm hook, and started with the suggested 50 chain. The gloves are a good fit (I have  a small wrist and medium sized hand and these gloves would fit a thinner hand and wrist equally well).

For these gloves, I used Paton’s Bluebell 5 ply yarn (50g, 135m, 100% wool, colour 4368 purple). This yarn was great to work with and I would definitely use it again.

Using a 3.0 mm hook, and starting with 50 chain, the pair of gloves used just over one ball of yarn (the pattern stated the pair of gloves would use 183 to 201m of yarn).

I am very happy with the finished product J

Crochet shoulder bag

This is the first shoulder bag I have crocheted. I wasn’t sure what type of bag I wanted to make, and changed my mind part way through, so ended up using a combination of two different patterns.

I started with Crochet N Crafts moss stitch beginner crochet bag (click here), though started with only 20 chain, and then followed the pattern for the base plus 30 rows. Then I switched to a Lion Brand market bag pattern (click here) for the shoulder strap design. I still used the single crochet moss stitch, but followed the principles in the Lion Brand pattern, decreasing the stitches until each strap had 5 single crochet per row. As instructed in the Lion Brand pattern, I also crocheted around the straps with a row of single crochet.

To finish off the bag, I stitched on some buttons and lined it with a floral fabric.

For this shoulder bag, I used Mondial Merino Special Superwash 12 ply yarn (50g, 75m, 60% wool and 40% acrylic). This yarn is lovely to use and has a soft yet chunky finish.

Using a 5.5mm hook, the bag used about 6 balls of yarn, and had a finished size of 14 inches wide by 9 inches high, with a base width of 4.5 inches.

  

Men’s easy beanie crochet pattern

This is an easy man’s beanie to crochet.

For this beanie, I used Mondial Merino Special Superwash 12 ply yarn (50g, 75m, 60% wool and 40% acrylic). This yarn is lovely to use and has a soft yet chunky finish.

Using a 6mm hook, each man sized beanie uses about 1 and a half balls of yarn.

Pattern:

I used the excellent beanie instructions provided by The Lazy Hobbyhopper (click here).

For my man sized beanie, and following the Hobbyhopper pattern, I started with 2 chain and then crocheted 8 dc into second chain from hook. As per this pattern, I then increased each row for 7 rows, doing one single crochet at the start of each row and then a double crochet into the same stitch as the beginning double crochet. I then crocheted four more rows of 1 dc in each dc from previous row. To add a rib finish, I used the hat ribbing pattern provided by Recycle Cindy (click here), doing 4 rows of ribbing.

The end product is a very comfy beanie that has good stretchiness.

Crochet Baby Blanket

This is an easy baby blanket inspired by Lisa Charbonneau (click here for link).

For this blanket, I used Panda Magnum Soft 8 ply acrylic yarn (100g, 189m), in colours: pink, butter, and white. This yarn was good to work with and produced a nice, soft blanket.  

Using a 4mm hook, and 4 balls each of both pink and butter and 1 ball of white, the blanket had a finished size of 104 cm square, with some yarn left over.

The blanket consists of 36 squares in a 6 x 6 arrangement. It has 9 pink solid squares, 9 butter solid squares, 9 granny squares with a pink centre, and 9 granny squares with a butter centre. These were then arranged in alternating rows of pink and butter (ie row of pink solid and pink centre squares alternating, followed by a row of butter solid and butter centre squares alternating).

The granny squares consisted of 7 rows of alternating pink and butter yarn. To make these I started with 5 chain to form a circle, and then:

Row 1: 4 lots of 3 dc with 3 chain between;

Row 2 to Row 7: groups of 3 dc in the chain spaces, with 3 dc 3 chain 3 dc in the corners, and one chain between the groups of 3 dc elsewhere.

For the solid colour squares, I started with 29 chain, and then crocheted 14 rows of double crochet, turning at each end.

To stitch the squares together, I used single crochet in white yarn, with the wrong side of squares facing together. The border consists of two rows of single crochet, also in the white yarn.