Accessories and more!

When I need a break from making hats, it's fun to make accessories.  They're the perfect palate cleanser--quick  and satisfying and a great way to stay creative on a small scale!  They have also been a sanity saver for me this holiday season.  I love being able to make something handmade, with love, for people I care about without committing too much time.  After all, I have A LOT of loved ones!  All of these projects took a few hours at most.

buttoned scarflet

rose headband

cup cozy

heavy neck warmer

Shell-stitch cloche (style) hats

I love cloche hats!  That flapper style gets me every time!  I think every girl in my life needs one!  A traditional cloche comes in a bit before flaring out at the bottom.  These hats are more of a cloche-style hat since my girls requested some (in the blue and grey) but didn't want the longer flared bottoms.

I think the shell stitch really enhances this very feminine style.

I especially like adding an eyelet row, crocheted ribbon and flower embellishment.

Perhaps the only thing that can make it better is having one to match your favorite friend!

with matching American Girl doll-sized hat

Nerdy scarf-hat

When I drew my brother-in-law in my family's Christmas gift exchange, I was stumped.  I was actually a little bummed that I didn't get one of the gals.  I envisioned myself crocheting a pretty hat or scarf.  Something girly with floral embellishments.  What on earth was I going to make for a 20-something guy? Luckily my youngest sister came to the rescue!  She described her husband as someone that is cool enough (and cute enough) to pull off something dorky.  She asked if I could make him a nerdy, bright colored hat with a huge pompom on top and two scarves for earflaps.

After I finished it and mailed it off I worried and fretted and stressed about it.  What if instead of being nerdy in a good way it was just lame?  Luckily my sister knows her husband a lot better than I do and she was right--he is cool enough (and cute enough) to pull it off!  And he really seems to like it!

my brother-in-law and nephew in their hats

Hard at Work

I'm sure it seems like I've gone MIA since the launch party.  Trust me, I'm hard at work!  So busy, in fact, that I don't have time to blog!  =)  I'm using every spare moment to finish up orders in time for Christmas and hopefully I'll then have time to make my own gifts!  I'm so excited to share pictures of the things I've been working on but I don't want to spoil any surprises so I won't be uploading any pictures until after the holidays.  Well, let me alter that statement a little.  When I have time I may share some, but only those items that won't accidentally be seen by their recipients, like gifts for my very young nieces and nephews. Those should be safe.  And hey, if a 1 year old is surfing the web, we have bigger problems!

Business Fair

A few weeks ago our preacher's wife, who is an ob-gyn, mentioned to me that her practice was having a launch party to introduce their new name.  They planned on having local businesses come, like a business fair, and she was sweet enough to include me!  She thought it would be a great opportunity for me to show off my hats and make some contacts.  And I would be sharing a space with two ladies from church who do craft fairs regularly so I'd have two great resources for my prep as well as two awesome people to hang out with the day of!  Why not?

my set-up.  professional?  maybe messy is more accurate...

Of course, as is my style, I made things overly complicated for myself.  I worried needlessly about getting a federal EIN, whether I needed to apply to collect sales tax (nope) and fretted that I wouldn't have enough product done to make it worth while.  I ordered business cards and made a slideshow of past work to be running on my mac at the table.  I even got a card reader that hooks up to my iphone so I could take credit card payments! And I crocheted.  Morning, noon and night I crocheted.  Whenever I had a spare moment, I was covered in yarn.  I didn't sleep much, carried projects with me every where and my husband began to complain that I wasn't doing anything else.   But, like I said, I wanted this opportunity to be worth my time!  By the day of the launch party, I had 17 hats ready to go!

toddler bucket hat-SOLD

4 + bomber hat

baby chunky beanie with brim

toddler beanie with brim

4+ beanie with brim and bird embellishment

4+ beanie with bird embellishment

newborn shell stitch earflap--SOLD

toddler shell stitch beanie-SOLD

baby owl earflap-SOLD

4 + owl earflap-SOLD

toddler two-toned earflap

baby puppy earflap

toddler puppy earflap--SOLD

baby bear eaflap

baby bunny earflap

baby chunky beanie

baby chunky beanie

Was it "worth it" in the end?  Depends on your definition, I suppose.  I only sold 3 hats.  (Interested in one of those still available?  Shoot me an email!) But I covered all of my yarn costs so I wasn't out anything.  And getting that many hats ready gave me the chance to try out a lot of different styles, patterns and embellishments that I might not have been able to try otherwise.  All in all it was a great learning experience and I'm really glad I did it!

Designing My Own Basic Hats

Now that I knew I could handle designing an animal earflap hat, working up a pattern for basic hats without faces or ears would be a cinch!  This was a lot of fun because I got to play with different stitch patterns and embellishments.  I think I have the basics figured out now so I can do anything from baby hats to adult hats.  My friend in Indiana will soon be receiving a baby hat with rose embellishments and a front-post/back-post pattern.

And because this little girl will be starring in a lot of her mother's photography work, she needed something pretty and girly!  How about a delicate earflap hat with a shells design?

She also wanted a hat for her son so I made a basic earflap hat with a stripe and brim.

Adelaide was not thrilled to be wearing a "boy" hat but her head was the right size!

I'm hoping to work on a lot of variations on these themes to sell next month in Chesapeake.

Shout out

I wanna give a quick shout out to my first and only follower: Hey there, Marisha!  Thanks so much!  I think that being the only person reading this blog should entitle you to something special.  Although, honestly, the fact that your birthday is in two days probably entitles you to something special anyway... Because I loathe going to the post office, you may have to wait until I mail the hats I'm sending for your kiddos, but keep an eye out for a little crochet love from me to you!

Animal Hats

I had a lot of fun making hats for my kids and was pretty excited when I got quite a few orders from friends.  Now I could keep working on my hat-making skills and the results would actually be enjoyed!  

First up was a sock monkey hat for a handsome little guy in Indiana!

Matilda loves to model the hats

we decided it definitely needed a pom pom on top

And there were a couple more owls--one for a little girl headed to Japan and the other for a little girl in Colorado.

I had already been altering the patterns for a better fit and to suit my aesthetic preferences, so the next logical step was to make one of my own, right?!  As requested by another friend in Indiana, I worked up kitty cats for her daughters!

(I actually made a sister hat in pink but failed to take a picture before I mailed them off.)

Now that I know I can do it, I'm definitely going to be doing more animals of my own design.  Bunnies, puppies, who knows what I'll do next!

Sidetracked by the broomstick

I have a few more posts already written, waiting to be published.  I've finished 9 orders but I still have 2 more to complete before I can start on the items for the craft fair next month.  So you'd think I'd be crocheting hats.  But you'd be wrong.  I have been sidetracked by the broomstick stitch.  I am in love with this stitch! 

I cannot seem to find my magnifying lenses so this is as good as it gets.  Arg!

It's fun to do and it is so pretty and delicate!  The first time I attempted it, the only thing I had that was remotely the right size was...a broomstick.  

Granted, it was a child's size broom but it was still a bit awkward to hold.  So when I started this project in earnest I got a size Q hook which was much more manageable. Personally I think the results are a tad sloppy but since I made it for myself it's not as big of an issue.  

Something I discovered: it is really difficult to take pictures of your own arm!

Now I've worked out the kinks and the next time I do it will be even better.  And, best of all, now that I've finished this cuff I can stop thinking about it and get back to my hats!

The start of something fun

After I made baby boy's owls for the valance, toy fox and car seat toy, I was ready for a break from amigurumi.  The weather had cooled just enough for me to imagine fall was just around the corner.  With summer on its way out, I figured it was the perfect time to dust off my rusty skills and work on some hats. A sweet friend in Indiana asked if I could make her a pumpkin hat to use as a photo prop so I had my first challenge.  It took quite a bit of searching, but I finally found a free pattern that wasn't completely awful.  I think the results were pretty cute!

free pattern found here

Bolstered by my success, I stumbled upon a great resource: patterns for sale on Etsy!  I was able to pay for only the patterns I wanted (a lot of books I found were full of items I just wasn't interested in) and a lot of sellers have specials so it is cheaper to buy a few at once.  3 kids means 3 patterns, doesn't it?  I let the girls browse with me and pick out their own and, of course, my Teddy had to have a bear.

Pattern found here.
Made for personal use. I am not licensed to share this pattern or sell the results.

I was pretty proud of how they turned out but did not expect anything except comments about how cute my models are (I admit, I'm pretty biased).  Instead I got quite a few orders!