Kids Granny Hat Pattern

Thanks for the lovely comments on the Kids Granny Hat I posted about yesterday. For those interested, the pattern is here. You'll notice I did a few extra rounds of the granny pattern - this is because I used our Australian 8ply instead of the worsted weight which isn't readily available here.

Thank goodness for crochet

It was starting to look as if I'd have nothing to report this week so I grabbed a hook and made this cute kids granny hat last night.

I've been working on a knit hat (part of my YoP hat challenge) for several days and it seems to be taking forever. Its so easy (just what I need) and is just k1, k1b every row - a stitch I'm sure you'll all know well. I wonder if its the pattern or just me but its growing so slowly. Hope to have a pic soon.

The weather here has been lovely this week - such a nice change from the long cold winter we've just had and the roses in my front courtyard have gone crazy. This pink Leonardo da Vinci always puts on a good show.

.. and the fragrance from these red beauties (forget their name) is beautiful.

Well, I'm off to bed now. Will be popping around to visit everyone tomorrow morning.

Hot off the Hook

Yes, its Ta-Da time for the baby blanket I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

This is the first time I’ve used the join-as-you-go method to actually make anything and I must say it was fun doing this blanket. For the record, I used Magnum 8ply with a 4.00mm hook. No pattern – just plain old grannies and for the border I just played around till I got something I thought was suitable.

A few days ago I decided to set myself a challenge to make 50 hats before the end of our Year of Projects. I will be donating some of these hats to Vinnies Night Patrol which is run by St. Vincent de Paul. The van visits several locations in my city, giving free soup, food and drinks to people in need. Some of these folk are homeless and live on the streets. Since the weather here in June is starting to get very cold I want to do my little bit to help keep these people warm and perhaps make life a bit more comfortable for them. The baby and children’s size hats will be donated to a local women’s refuge. Therefore, to enable me to do this, I’m modifying completely changing my list to now read “50 Hats for Charity”. Of course I’ll be wanting to make other things as well but I think it would be more realistic to just have the hats on my YoP list. And so, here’s hat No. 1 – this is the Urban Shells beanie which can be made in any size. I used Magnum Soft 8ply with a 4.50mm hook. The pattern was designed by fellow Australian Katherine Crombie and can be found here.

Almost there

I missed my Sunday update so thought I'd better pop in to say hello and let you know how the baby's blanket is coming along. As you can see by the picture, I'm almost finished joining the squares and will then just have to give it a nice border. I'm sure I'll find something suitable in my new book 'Around the Corner Crochet Borders'.

With a bit of luck (and available crochet time), I hope to be able to show you the finished item by the end of the week.

I want to thank Marie from Undergroundcrafter for the lovely book, card and crochet hook I received in the mail a few days ago. You may recall I won the Ami Ami Dogs 2 book giveaway on her blog a few weeks back. The book is lovely and I'm particularly thrilled to find a pattern for a Pug magnet included as I've had Pug dogs for most of my life and am very fond of them. One of my daughters owns a Pug - guess what she'll find in her Christmas stocking this year? Thank you again Marie for this great prize.

At last

Its been awhile but at last I have something to show you for my Year of Projects update. Mind you, its not finished but I'm happy with the progress so far.

Of course you can tell its going to be a baby's blanket can't you? I'm using the join as you go method so after 8 blue squares and 1 more mauve one, all I have left to do is the final white rounds to join plus the border. Reckon I'll have it finished by next week?

You can tell its spring around here ... the magpies are very active and are swooping like crazy. We used to have a family of maggies visit us each year but for some reason they stopped coming. This guy has been enjoying my yard quite a bit lately - I wonder if he's one of their offspring coming back for another visit.

Oh, before I finish this post, for those who asked (and especially Kathy), I've tried that Addi Swing Hook I told you about last week and like I said, it will take a little while to get used to the funny shape but its probably a good hook for anyone who gets sore hands when crocheting. I hold my hooks the 'pen' way and it seemed to be quite comfortable. Not sure how it would be for people who hold the 'knife' way though. I've only played around with it for ten minutes or so but when I've actually made something with it, I'll give you another update.

Time for bed now but I'll look forward to reading everyone else's updates tomorrow.

Sunday update late

Seems I'm getting a bit slack with my Sunday posts but then we are ahead of the rest of the world time-wise here in Australia, so that will have to be my excuse. If frogging stuff is considered productive then I've been VERY productive this week. Started making a baby's blanket with 5 pastel colours - just 5 round granny's with another round of white for the join-as-you-go method. I used stash and thought I'd have enough, but oh no, not so !! Couldn't find the right colours at the LYS and to cut a long story short, ended up having to discard 9 squares, remove 3 from the already joined blanket, completely frog a baby's hat I had in my charity box so I could use the yarn to make one extra square that I was short of in that particular colour. Aghhhhh frustration !!!

During the week I received my Addi Swing Hook from America. Haven't had time to give it a test-drive yet but its very different to any other hook I've ever used and I think it will take a little getting used to.

I'm off now to do a bit of blog surfing to see what others have been up to. Have a good week everyone.