All Grown Up Slouched Hat

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I made this hat using the All Grown Up Striped Slouched Hat pattern. The pattern calls for the hat to be made using an aran yarn, but I used a double knit (a double knit is thinner than an aran). In order to be able to make the hat to fit my head, I only needed to change the length off the hat. I used a 5.5 mm (I) crochet hook and made the small adult size. I crocheted about 6 more rows in the stripe pattern than the pattern asked for.

The pattern was fairly easy to make, and I learned a new stitch as well as the best method (in my opinion) of making a brim. The pattern calls for the brim to be simultaneously made and attached to the hat, thus eliminating the hassle of sizing the brim to the hat and attaching it. I will definitely be using this brim method for all of my future crochet hats!

Devil or Angle?

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Why yes, that is a Kylo Ren mask! I made this combination hood and scarf using this scoodie pattern. From my calculations, I thought the scoodie would take about two balls of yarn to make, but it ended up taking six.

It’s difficult to photograph without it looking faded or without all of the detail disappearing, but I hope these photos give an idea of what it looks like. The pattern was a video pattern, which I personally do not like as much as a written pattern, but the scoodie was very easy to make. I would definitely suggest this pattern to people learning to crochet, because of its simple design with great visuals in the instructional video. It worked up very quickly because of the thickness of the yarn, and the scoodie is very warm – perfect for cold days!

12784532_10205579260351768_525346012_nI made this hat for my friend Nicole, who told me to make her a hat that “has a random word on it that you think describes me”. Of course I went with ‘★ANGLE★’, a reference to my friend being an angel, and to an image that went around ages ago that said “I can be your devil or angle” on it. All of the pictures of the hat (with Nicole in it) were taken by Nicole. 12767546_10205579260831780_1235226791_nI tried to use a couple websites I found through google that translate images to knitting patterns, but I found it difficult to get the patterns to look how i wanted it to. Instead, I printed out a knitting pattern template, which is basically a grid of rectangles roughly the same size and shape of stitches, and drew out the letters and stars on that. The knitting method I used for the lettering is called stranded knitting technique, and involves ‘floats’ of yarn to be left on the back of the work. My tension for these floats were off in the space behind the stars, which resulted in them puffing out quite a bit. My tension in the lettering, however, is much better, and that section is very flat. I think I just need more practice in order to fix my tension issues. Overall, I do like the hat a lot, and I think it’s perfect for Nicole.

Hats for Trade

Since my visa doesn’t allow me to do freelance work and I’ve been making hats like it’s what’s keeping me alive, I’ve been trading hats with my friends for different things. I believe I’ve mentioned this before, when I talked about my Ugly Hat Trade with my friend Katie.

My friend Scott, who takes the same course at uni with me, requested that I make him a ‘cat beanie’ in trade for a drawing, so I present you with the Witch’s Cat Hat. The hat is a simple knit base with a half inch of rib stitch at the brim. The ears are two identical crocheted triangles which were then crocheted together using black yarn.

This hat was traded with my friend Luc for food. It was made using the Hella Gay Hat pattern, which I lengthened to make a beanie. I made the larger size, and it ended up being too big. I tried a new technique on this hat, double knitting, which causes the design to be knit on both sides of the piece at the same time, just in opposite colors. It was a little difficult to start out, but easy to pick up. This method takes a lot longer than just creating ‘floats’ in the back of the work, but the tension is much better. Since there is essentially two layers of work, this makes the hat warmer and squisher, which is nice, but since I only double knit a small portion of the hat, it ends up looking a bit odd when placed on the head.

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I am very happy with the pom pom.

Hats!

These are the two hats I knitted for my friend Ruth for Christmas. She asked for a Where’s Waldo Hat, and I messed up the first hat, which is the one on the left. It is clearly not a Where’s Waldo hat, and is instead a Santa hat. I realized my mistake too late, and so finished the Santa hat before moving on to the Where’s Waldo one.


This is the Deadpool hat/balaclava I made for Ruth’s sister. The base is knit in red following the Jackyll & Hide pattern, and I hand sewed on black shapes to outline the eyes, and then put white netting underneath so that it could be used as a mask.

I made this hat for a knitting trade with my friend Katie. We wanted to do a trade of ‘ugly hats’. I worked with both colors at the same time from opposite sides of the hat to create a striped pattern that spirals to the top, where I made the biggest pom-pom I could.

This zig-zag scarf was made for my friend Nicole’s birthday.

I decided on each row’s color by flipping a coin for each row, resulting in a lovely, truly random pattern.

That’s right, it’s an R2D2 hat! I made this to celebrate the new Star Wars movie, and used the Star Wars Droid Beanies pattern. I modified the hat a little bit by adding two extra rows, one where the hat is solid grey, and one at the bottom.

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Yes! Another Star Wars hat! This one is BB-8, a character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I used a BB-8 Droid Hat Pattern, and modified the circles to be smaller, and looking at the robot in order to judge where to put them.

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A New School Year

Sorry, it’s been quite a while since I’ve last posted. Since then, I have moved to England and started my first year studying costume design and construction at a university level. I’ve been working very hard in class, and so kept forgetting to post. (oops!)

During winter break, I went to Austria with my friend Ruth and stayed with her family. While in Austria, Ruth and I visited her photographer friend, Bildersanatorium, who was kind enough to take photographs of the many pieces I have made since September.

Slytherin Hat

I had made this hat to match a scarf I’d made, but I lost the scarf almost immediately upon its completion.

This hat was the second thing I made after moving to England. It’s a very simple earflap hat made from double crochet and single crochet, with braided tassels and a pom-pom.

In most of the photos I look very serious.

I actually look happy in this photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This dress is made from a very nice stretch velvet I picked up from BSP Haberdashery. I felt it, and I just had to take it home with me. I made up the dress pattern as I went along, copying one of my tank tops for the bodice, and gathering two rectangles for the skirt. The dress is so simple that I was able to hand sew the entire dress in one night.

Ruth with Red hat and Harley Quinn Scarf

Ruth with Red hat and Harley Quinn Scarf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my friend Ruth in cosplay as Mavis from Hotel Transylvania. She is modeling a knit hat and a crocheted scarf. The hat is a super simple pattern, I just altered knit and purl stitches until it reached the length I wanted, and then decreased. The scarf is made from the basic tunisian crochet stitch, which ended up making the fabric very thick and warm, but also caused a strange drape. I started making the scarf in red, but switched to black when I ran out of red.

Green Hat Front Green Hat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made this hat for Ruth’s dad for Christmas. It’s a plain knit hat with a ribbed cuff.

Purple Cat Hatpurplecathat2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This hat is made for Ruth’s mom using the Kitkat Hat Pattern. The pattern was super easy to make, and I love the result!

Blue Cable Hat Blue Cable Hat 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite hat. It was my first time working with cables in a pattern and I love it so much! I used the Traveling Cable Hat Pattern and I found the instructions very easy to follow, although I did get confused while I was making the ribbing and messed up a bit. If you want to see in progress pictures of my hat, please click this link.

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This dress is actually a project from spring of last year. It’s made from the same pattern as the French Fry Dress out of a soft woven plaid fabric. I did not match the plaid because it is a very small print, and I lined the bodice with the same fabric used in the rest of the dress.

I am planning on posting more often this year, and hopefully I’ll stick to that promise!

 

Uchi-Con

Hello!

Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve had a lot to work on! I just finished my portfolio for costume design, which can be viewed right here or by clicking on the link labeled ‘portfolio’ at the top of the page. Some of the garments are unblogged, but I hope I can put some information about them up eventually.

In addition to creating this portfolio, I have been preparing for Uchi-Con, which I went to yesterday. According to ravelry, I have spent about two weeks furiously crocheting hats for this convention.

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Our table right before the con opened

I shared a table with the Mangaka club from our school. They took up most of the table and sold buttons, prints, and commissions. I sold the hats that I had made over the past couple weeks, and I worked on crocheting more items while sitting behind the table.

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The view from our table (if you look closely, you can see cosplays of the Gorillaz)

I completed a total of five hats before the convention, and then I completed another hat at the beginning of the convention, making for a total of six hats up for sale. All of the hats were patterns that I free-handed, meaning I didn’t use a pattern and just made to fit my head. Three hats were pokéballs, one had cat ears, one had earflaps and bear ears, and the last one had a brim and a pom-pom at the top.

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Our table was pretty busy, and we often had big groups of people around our table. Many people stopped by to complement my work and to buy buttons.

Before the convention began, I was concerned that I would run out of hats, but in the end, I only sold two hats. The pokéball hats were my most popular item, and I’m thinking about opening an online store to sell these hats as well as other items that I have made.

I had a couple chances to walk around Uchi-Con during the day, and since this convention was kind of small, I was able to stop by every booth (there were about fifteen). I ended up buying a super cute cake charm from Dreaming Wings and a soft pastel barrette from Colour My World Creations. It was really hard to chose!

The Gorillaz

I don’t have a link for these guys, but if anyone knows a website to link this to, please let me know!

Overall, Uchi-Con was really fun and I loved seeing all of the cosplays and the work that the tables had on display. I would definitely suggest going next year!

Winter Gifts! (Part One)

georgia with present with hat also hatI made this hat out of a very nice wool blend yarn for my friend Georgia. I modified my “Spark” Slouchy Hat pattern by adding a band and stopping the dome of the hat early so that it would be a closer fit.
I’m allergic to wool, but I did not have any difficulties working with the yarn, and the hat worked up fairly quickly. However, when I went to try the hat on, I discovered I was too allergic to wear it. Georgia had no problems with the yarn and was very excited to receive her gift.

kates slytherin hatThis hat I made for my friend Kate, who lives far enough away that I had to mail it to her. I originally wanted this hat to be an earflap hat, but I miscalculated how much grey yarn I had, and ran out very early on. I was able to fix the problem, and made a green brim for the hat instead of earflaps, adding the Hogwarts house name “Slytherin” to the brim in the remaining silver yarn.

Over the next few days/weeks I will be uploading pictures of the remaining gifts I have given to my friends, as well as one I received. I will also be taking pictures of older garments that I may not have mentioned before, and posting those.

18″ Doll’s Earflap Hat

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This is a crochet hat pattern that I designed for my little sister’s American Girl Doll. The hat has two earflaps, and will fit nearly every 18″ doll.

Currently for sale on Ravelry for $0.85!

Stuffed Animal Top Hats!

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Labbit wearing Crocheted Top Hat

These top hats are really easy to make and only take a few minutes to crochet. They are sized to fit small stuffed animals.

“Spark” Slouchy Hat

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A slouchy hat made with three colors of yarn in double and treble crochet.