Warm and Cozy

During the recent heavy snow in my part of England, I thought there was no better time to make a hat. This is a hat that I have been planning to make for a LONG time, and I have finally got around to it.

Years ago I got given a book of patterns for animal hats, (at the time I was always was wearing woolly animal hats, the monkey was my favourite!), unfortunately I never got around to making a hat from it. Now I wanted to make a walrus, and there wasn't actually a pattern for a walrus in the book, so I've had to make my own.

From the book I used the adult size pattern to make the basic hat, (it was a pattern for a chicken hat, but I left off the beak and comb), the rest of the hat I made up as I went along.

The hat is a basic woolly hat shape, has two tassels, which on the end of which are pom poms. I used a variegated chunky yarn for the main hat, that was a basic brown shade, but was a little more jazzy.

The cheeks, and tusks are made separately and sewn onto the hat, as are the eyes. The eyes are one white button and one black button each, sewn on in place with some black thread.

The tusks I knitted with an odment of white DK yarn from the stash, and the cheeks are crocheted, with a lighter colour variegated DK yarn. I made up the pattern for these two pieces and have included it below, for anyone who wants to have a go.

The hat, has a knitted lining in the ear flaps, and a fleece lining for the main hat. The book has the patterns for the lining and the instructions on how to do it. There was an option for a knitted lining to the hat, but I felt a fleece lining would be a little nicer. I might try a knitted lining next time.

Tusks Pattern (Make two):
On UK size 9 needles, cast on 2.
Row 1: Knit (and all odd rows)
Row 2; Kfb, K1
Row 4: K2, Kfb
Row 6: Kfb, K3
Row 8: K4, Kfb
Knit another 20 rows in garter stitch,
Cast off.

Cheeks Pattern (Make two): (all stitches are UK stitches)
With a 4mm crochet hook, chain 11.
dc in stitch 1 from hook,
dc in the next 8 chains,
3dc in last chain,
dc in the bottom of the 9 chains and slip stitch into first chain to create a round.

Chain 1, 2dc in 1st dc, dc in next 8 dc, 2dc in next dc, 3dc in next dc, 2dc in next dc, dc in next 9 dc.
2dc in next 4 dc, dc in next 9 dc, 2dc in next 6dc, dc in next 10 dc, 2dc in next 6 dc, dc in next 11 dc, 2dc in next 3 dc, dc in next 3 dc, 2dc in next 3 dc, dc in next 12 dc, slip stitch, cut and fasten off.

I appologise if this crochet pattern doesn't make much sense, I am a knitter really, and I struggled to write down exactly what I did. The outcome you are looking for is a long oval shape, it doesn't really matter how you get there.

Cozied Up

And just in time for winter it's finished!

I had started this scarf a while ago when I made one for Mr M, which you can have a look at here, along with the pattern.

I made this one with the yarn that I had leftover from making Mr M's football scarf, and thought I would make one for me, being a WRU supporter I took advantage of the colours being the same!

Now it is finished just in time to snuggle up for the winter, although we do look a little like tweedledee and tweedledum when we are both wearing them, but oh well...

In other news, my friend Slade has a blog called All About That Space, which, as the name suggests, is, all about Space! So if you want to catch up with the goings on in the sky, or just want to have a little read, go check it out.

Striped Scarf

Mr M in his scarf

A little while ago, Mr M asked me to make him a scarf for his football team. So I set about finding the right wool, and thinking about how to actually make the scarf.

I decided on using double knit wool, so the scarf wouldn't be too thick, and I used a single rib stitch. The end result was a nice scarf with the desired effect. Bellow is the pattern.

In the pattern there is an interesting finish to the edge of the scarf (sl 1 pwise wyif), this gives a smooth and neat edge to the scarf, I tend to use this when I need to create something in which the edges are most likely to be seen. The abbreviations here can be looked up in the abbreviations page in the side bar.

Here is what it actually means:
So the k1, p1 stitch is done until there is only one stitch left in the row, then like you would if you were doing a purl stitch, bring the yarn to the front of the needle. Then put the needle through the front of the stitch (like a purl) and slip the stitch from the right needle onto the left, and there you have finished the row! The stitch will be the first to be knitted on the next row, so it does not need to be worried about.

Yarn in front of needle

Needle through front of stitch

Finished row

Pattern:
Size 7 and size 9 needles (UK)
200g of DK wool
100g of colour A
100g of colour B

With size 7 needles cast on 50 sts with colour A

Row 1: (K1, P1) to last st, sl 1 pwise wyif.
Repeat row 1 for three more rows, change to size 9 needles.

Row 5: (K1, P1) to last st, sl 1 pwise wyif.
Repeat row 5 until you have 28 rows in colour A,

Switch to colour B and knit 24 rows of:
(K1, P1) to last st, sl 1 pwise wyif.

Repeat knitting stripes of 24 rows until you have 21 stripes

On the last stripe, when row 24 has been reached, switch to size 7 needles.
Knit four more rows of:
(K1, P1) to last st, sl 1 pwise wyif.

Cast off.

Tassels:
Tassels are optional in this pattern but I have included them on the scarf for Mr M, so this is how I've made them.

I started off with the two ends of the remaining yarn. In my tassels I've used both colours, but you can use only one colour if you wish, but you will have to wrap the yarn twice as much to get the same amount of tassels. I wrapped the yarn twice around my hand, cut it off the ball at the bottom, then along the same place as the ends, cut one side of the loops.

When wrapping the yarn you can wrap it around anything that has two straight edges if you don't wish to use your hand. By using something else you will be able to vary the size of tassel you make and if you are making multiple tassels then you will be able to ensure they are all the same size.

Now you should have four longish lengths of yarn, which are folded in half. With the top end of the tassel (the fold) pull it through a stitch (but not all the way) on the very edge of the scarf at the end. Once you have pulled the tassel part way through the stitch you will have a small loop on one side of the scarf and the tails on the other. Pull the tails through the loop and pull the tails so they tighten the loop around that bottom stitch. Now the tassel is attached.

On my scarf I have made 13 tassels and tried to equally space them along the bottom of the scarf, although if you made 25 tassels you would be able to place them at every other stitch along the bottom of the scarf. But the number of tassels and where you attach them is entirely down to your preference.