Crocheted Cloche Hat

This is MY version of the fabulous Cloche Hat. It's sized to fit an average woman's head.

Materials:

• Size 6mm crochet hook
• 12 ply yarn (I used Moda Vera Marvel)

Instructions:

Chain 3 and join.
Round 1: 7 hdc in ring formed by joined chain, join with a slip stitch(7hdc)
Round 2: ch 1, 2 hdc in ea st around, join (14hdc)
Round 3: ch 1, *1 hdc in next st, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (21hdc)
Round 4: ch 1, *1 hdc in next 2 sts, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (28hdc)
Round 5: ch 1, *1 hdc in next 3 sts, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (35hdc)
Round 6: ch 1, *1 hdc in next 4 sts, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (42hdc)
Round 7: ch 1, *1 hdc in next 5 sts, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (49hdc)
Round 8: ch 1, *1 hdc in next 6 sts, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (56hdc)
Round 9: ch 1, 1 hdc in ea st around, join (56hdc)

Your increases should line up as you work your way from round to round.
Round 10-19 : rep Rnd 9

Once the body of the hat is as long you as want (work less or more rows to get the length you want) you start on your brim as follows.

Round 20: ch 1, in back loops only, *1 hdc in next st, 2 hdc in next st* rep around, join (84hdc)
Round 21: ch 1, 1 hdc in ea st around, join.
Round 22-24: rep Round 20

Round 25: ch 1, sc into each stitch to the end of the row. Fasten off.

Abbreviations:

• ch = chain
• ea = each
• hdc = half double crochet
• sc = single crochet
• st = stitch
• rep = repeat

Adorn your hat with a flower made as follows:

size 5 mm hook and yarn

Chain 30

(dc,ch 3, slip st, {ch 3, dc, ch 3, slip st} twice) all in the 4th ch from the hook, 

*(slip st, ch 3, dc, ch 3, slip st)* all in the next ch, repeat from * across the chain to the end. Fasten off.

Starting with the first 3 petals you made, spiral the petals around in layers and stitch in place from the back.

Stitch firmly to your hat.

Covert American yarn and hook sizes to Australian

OK, so I live "down-under" and I'm not primitive but Googling just about always leads me to American sites where they talk about worsted weight or sport weight yarns and tell me to use an F or a J hook (or any other random letter of the alphabet). Sometimes they tell me to use 4 ply and I get all excited because hey, I KNOW what that is! Now, 4 ply yarn here in Australia (and New Zeland) is baby wool. So I look at the pattern and think to myself that no idiot would make a ladies hat out of baby wool unless they had way too much time on their hands and head back to google and click "next".

Some times I think that OK, I'll try 8 ply and use a size 5 hook (following the suggestion on the wool wrapper) .... the woman's beanie I made using that method would probably fit a 3 year old. I followed the pattern exactly! I am continually modifying patterns I find on the internet to accomodate my down-under brain, hooks and yarn but eventually I get the result I want.

Viola! 

Below is the correct wool weights/plys and hook sizes.

lace weight, superfine, ultra fine, baby weight is 2-3 ply in UK/NZ/Aus

fingering weight, fine, baby weight is 3-4 ply in UK/NZ/Aus

sport or light weight is 4ply in UK/NZ/Aus

DK or medium is 8 ply in UK/NZ/Aus

worsted or heavy weight is 10 ply or double knitting in UK/NZ/Aus

Aran is 12-ply or triple knitting in UK/NZ/Aus

bulky yarn is 14 ply, double double in UK/NZ/Aus

Crochet Hook Conversion Chart

US Hook Sizes	Canada/UK Hook Sizes	AUS/NZ/Metric Hook Sizes
0	14	2.0 mm
B/1	13	2.25 mm
C/2	12	2.75 mm
C/2	11	3.0 mm
D/3	10	3.25 mm
E/4	-	3.5 mm
F/5	9	3.75 mm
G/6	8	4.0 mm
7	7	4.5 mm
H/8	6	5.0 mm
I/9	5	5.5 mm
J/10	4	6.0 mm
K/10 ½	3	6.5 mm
10.75	2	7.0 mm
-	1	7.5 mm
L/11	0	8.0 mm
M/13	00	9.0 mm
N/15	000	10.0 mm
O/17	-	12.0 mm
P/19	-	15.0 mm
Q/19	-	16.0 mm
S/35	-	19.0 mm
50	-	25.0 mm

 

Crocheted Baby Mary Jane Booties

I know, I know! I am supposed to be working on the new Grandbaby's cot blanket!

I saw these at The Guildford fair yesterday and thought they were cute and of course once I got home I headed straight to google to find a pattern. The bootie is crocheted all in one with no seams, you do have to make the strap separate and sew in place but it's only 2 stitches. I added the little pink flower simply because I am addicted to flowers, these days they are being made randomly just for the hell of it. You could add ribbons or bows or simply leave the bootie plain. 

These are made with 8 ply wool on  a size 4 hook and would fit new born to 3 months.

A similar pattern can be found here:

http://crotiques.com/fakemjs.htm

I modified 3 patterns to make the booties and will sit and write it down when I make the next pair.

Petal Flower Squares

These gorgeous flowers were linked to me by my sister Julie when she was trying to show me (from New Zealand) what a crocheted flower looked like. I whipped this square up in about 20 minutes - not bad for a first effort even if I may say so myself. When I have finished the hexagon rug and the zig zag rug for my newest grandchild I think I'll make a rug made completely of flowers.

I keep this flower square sitting on the kitchen bench (yeah, random I know but it's almost like a post-it-note). Every time I look at it I get motivated to FINISH the rugs I have already started.

Here are the instructions. All credit goes to RoseHip and her blog at Typepad. My square has ONE more row around, 7 rounds in total. I did this so I could have a visible border around my flower once it is sewn together. Just repeat row 6 making sure you line up your corners. I'll make one up one day soon so I can tell you exactly how row 7 goes.

http://rosehip.typepad.com/rose_hip_blog/2008/11/index.html 

With the color of yarn you wish to use for the center of the flower, ch 4 and join with a sl st into the first ch to form a ring. Continue working in the round as follows:

Round 1: Ch 4 (counts as 1 dc, ch 1), * 1 dc into ring, ch 1 **; repeat from * to ** 6 times. Join with a sl st into 3rd ch of the ch-4 made at the beginning of this round. (There should be 8 ch-1 spaces in the round.) Fasten off and break off the first color.

Round 2: Join the color you wish to use for the petals into any of the ch-1 spaces, ch 1 and * 1 sc, 3 dc, 1 sc ** into the same ch-1 space; repeat from * to ** into the next 7 ch-1 spaces. Join with a sl st into the first sc of the first ch-1 space. (There should be 8 petals around the center.)

Round 3: Ch 1, and working behind the petals now, sl st into the stem † of the last sc made in round 2. Ch 4, sc into the stems of the next 2 adjoining scs (between the two petals) and then * ch 3, sc into the stems of the next 2 scs; repeat from * to ** 5 more times, ch 3, and then sl st into the first ch of the ch-4 done at the beginning of this round. You should now have a ch-3 space (or loop) behind each petal made in round 2.

Round 4: Ch 1 and work * 1 sc, 5 dc, 1 sc ** into the first ch-3 space and repeat from * to ** into all the next ch-3 spaces; sl st into the first sc of the first petal made in this round. You should now have another 8 petals behind the first 8 made. Fasten off and break off this color. 

Round 5: Still working behind the petals, join the yarn you wish to use as the background for the flower to the stems † of any 2 adjoining scs of round 4 (between two petals), and then ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), 2dc into the same sc stems, and ch 1. Into the stems of the next 2 scs  of round 4, * 3 dc, ch 1, 3 dc to make a corner, ch 1, 3 dc, into the stems of the next 2 scs , ch 1 **; repeat from * to ** 2 more times, and then 3dc, ch 1, 3 dc into the stems of the next 2 scs, ch 1 and sl st into the 3rd ch of ch-3 done at the beginning of this round.

Round 6: Ch 1, * 1 sc into each of the next three dcs done in round 5, 1sc into the ch-1 space that follows, 1sc into each of the next three dcs, 3 sc into the ch-1 corner space, 1sc into each of the next three dcs, and 1 sc into the ch-1 space that follows **; repeat from * to ** 3 more times, join with a sl st into the first sc made in this round. Fasten off and break off yarn.

ch = chain stitch; sc = single crochet stitch; dc = double crochet stitch; sl st = slip stitch.

Actually it's Saturday March 26th ...

...shows what I know huh?

I have been working on this African Flower hexagon rug since last winter. It's fiddly but each hexagon is gorgeous and I can visualise them all sewn together. This will definitely be an heirloom rug once it's completed!

I kind of have it figured that I need 12 hexagons in each colour ie; 12 pink flowers, 12 blue flowers and so on ... So 10 hexagons across and about 12 to 14 hexagons high and it should be big enough to fit nicely on a queen size bed. The only oops I have with this pattern is that when sewn together I am going to have a weird edge. Looks like I have to google HALF hexagons so I can straighten up the finished rug.

Had a count up - I have 60 hexagons crocheted so far, half way - yay me! I promise to upload a photo of the finshed product.

The link for these flowers is below at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy!

Saturday 25th March

OK. So, I'm new to this blogging thing but I have so many knitting and crochet patterns that I have found on the internet and I can't keep track of my "history" on my computer anymore because my new computer has Window's 7 installed on it and I am a Windows XP geek. In saying that, I have 2 laptops and I cant find anything on either of them!

Hence - a blog. I figure cyberland can probably keep better track of my links and fav places AND google will bring you here so I can share them with you. This will take me a bit of time to figure out so bear with me as I learn and stumble through the weird and wonderful way of creating a blog and my very own page - heck I have a font on my intial description that I want to change and I can't for the life of me figure out how its done.

 Here is a sample of what I do. My sister Julie sent me a message on Facebook asking me to make a necklace for my niece Jessica. Flowers, if you please. They are in New Zealand. Maybe things are a little different there or maybe I just dont get out of my house often enough but a necklace made from crocheted flowers made my mind boggle and even though I had/have HAVE other projects on my hooks and needles I started on this straight away. 

Flowers, as any crocheter (is this a word?) knows are addictive. You make one and think "Oh my God, its so cute!" and next thing you know you have a pile of them. When my sister suggested this I immediately thought "daisy-chain" and this is the end result.

Apparently Jessi loves it!

I have posted a link for making flowers and it's for the large flower, it has 3 rows of petals and is soooo easy. 

Here it is again if you cant find your way around my blog:

http://rosehip.typepad.com/rose_hip_blog/2007/09/september-blur.html

The instructions for the little daisies can be found here: 

 http://greetingarts.typepad.com/greetingarts/2008/07/crocheted-flower-tutorial.html

- fab tutorial with step by step pictures.

Enjoy!