Finally the Christmas caps have been delivered, so I can show them to you.
This hat and scarf was made for my niece Jennifer and she said it fit perfectly. The hat is kind of slouchy/buckety looking affair with a flower stuck on the side - but it looked good on my co-worker, who acted as my model while I was making them, as I have a rather "grande sized head" that is too big to fit a standard ladies sized hat.
It is a wool/mohair/firestar blend from Dawn's Custom Carding that I picked up at Black Sheep Gathering last summer, and the yarn that I got the blue ribbon on at the NW Washington Fair last August. The fiber I got from Dawn's was really nice and so easy to spin. I will definately be stopping by that booth at next summer's BSG.
This one is called (appropriately) The Bobble Hat. I think it was my favorite one to make & I really love how it looks. The good news was that it fit my niece Sarah. (yeah~)
It is made out of Superwash Merino and hand combed colored mohair locks that were spun in closely the same color-way as the merino and plied with some white coreydale. I wasn't sure if there would be enough of the merino yarn to make the hat, and I was right, there wouldn't have been enough. I had never spun superwashed merino before (it came in one of those tightly braided hanks) and did not draft it down very well, so it was kind of a thick-thin yarn - Oh, that's right, that is called "novelty yarn" - yeah, that's the ticket.
The pattern for this hat was fairly straight forward until I got to the "bobble row" - when it plainly said "Make bobble" - no instructions on how or what a bobble was. Luckily I've been "shopping" on the Crafter's Choice Book Club and have all these wonderful new crochet "How-To" books, and luckily they had instructions on how to make a bobble. - It is actually made from the wrong side with five half/double crochets.
A bobble, up close.
This little beauty was made from the crocheted hat pattern from the fall "Spin-Off" magazine. They rarely have crochet patterns, and this one was really cute. I used it for Emma's hat and for her Grandmom's hat (My sister) - unfortunately Wisten's hat is a bit too small. We are hoping that she can size it by washing it. -
This was a wool, mohair blend that reminded me of my sister the minute I saw it. If you click on the picture to "biggify" it, you can see all the colors in this wool - navy, almost a green, a bit of black, turquoise, and some flecks of gold. I hope she can size it up so it fits her.
These are the "Cougar Caps" in Burgandy and Grey for my nephew Chris and his dad. I have heard that Glenn's hat is too small - It is pretty tightly crocheted - I don't know if my sis will be able to size it up or not. I haven't heard if Chris's fit or not.
The burgandy was some misc. wool that I got at BSG and I picked up the grey at our Spinner Guild "spin-in" last fall. I can't remember what it was, but it sure spun up nice.
Chris's wife Jennifer (both nephews married Jennifers!) had told me that she didn't get along with wool too well - it makes her very itchy - so I got some cotton yarn at my LYS - it has bits of green, gold and blue in it - very pretty and fun to crochet. This was supposed to be a newsboy style hat with a brim, but somehow, the brim never happened, so I turned it into a beret. I thought it was really cute. hopefully it fits.
I have two skeins of the yarn left so maybe I'll make her a scarf to go with it.
I guess I forgot to take a picture of the hat I made for Jake - it was the same style as the one for his brother Chris and their dad - but it was in Red & Black superwashed merino. He is a baseball and football coach at Ritzville High School in Eastern Washington and black & red are the school colors.
I'm really seeing the need to make a little book of the yarn that I am spinning - reminding myself of what went wrong and what went right...and what the yarn was composed of. I got a nice little blank book for Christmas - maybe that would be a good use for it.
