I had quite a bit of disappointment when I washed it though. My swatches were able to be washed just fine in the washing machine. But when I washed the full garment, it felted slightly. I blocked the heck out of it and it still had shrunk. I can still wear it, but I think I’ll stop being lazy and handwash it  next time. It’s not ruined, but not quite the way I wanted it to be. We’ll see if I can figure out a way to return it to it’s original shape and finish.

You can see the finished results on my Ravelry project page.

Before starting the whole gauge swatch debacle, I had thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Okay, make a couple of different swatches, wash and block. It will take some time, but I’m okay with that. I didn’t understand why people would be so frustrated that they’d want to pull their hair out. Now I know why! Before I even measured, I ran into a huge problem. I wash my yarn so I can block it, and holy yarn smell Batman! My laundry room was filled with the smell of wet, dirty llama.

The yarn I’m using is Plymouth Yarn’s Baby Alpaca DK. I’ve never had a problem with yarn smelling like wet animal before. But this went beyond just wet animal smell. It was truly… rank after washing it. I know it’s not the wash I use because Eucalan is wonderful. I even had someone come into my laundry room and ask what animal had died. All from just a gauge swatch! This yarn is so soft and lovely, I’d really like to use it. But if it smells after washing, no way I’m making a garment out of it. (This is why I’m so very very glad I swatched first.) And so, as with many problems, I head over to the forums on ravelry.

Perusing old posts, I see that other people have had problems with llama yarn smelling after washing, and then some people haven’t. The best advice I’ve found is to wash it about five times in laundry soap, etc. and then see if it still stinks. Most people said that the smell went away after that. A couple said it never did… So I’m washing my swatch again. Then I’ll wash it three more times to the magical number five and see if that works. If it still smells… well I’m out quite a bit of money as there’s no way I’m using that yarn for a project, and I’ll have to go choose a different yarn.

I’ll let everyone know how it turns out, and I’ll be avoiding my laundry room as much as possible. Oh how glad I am that I did a gauge swatch first! And oh how I love Ravelry, to find out others have had the same problems and have advice for me.

Step 1: Read the pattern so you know what the heck you’re getting into.

The pattern I’m using is Eleonora by Knitting Nonstop. At first glance this pattern looks very well written, and well worth the money spent to buy it. Detailed pictures,         straightforward material listings and abbreviation index. I’m trying to use up yarn from my stash, and I have some very lovely Plymouth baby alpaca DK. Unfortunately, I only have five skeins, which is about 625 yards. The pattern calls for a minimum of 750. A hitch in my plans! However, I do have 4 skeins of the same yarn in a darker brown that would look good as the outer body ribbing. I’ll probably end up doing that, or going to the store to get one more skein, even if they dyelot doesn’t match up correctly.

Now here’s one big thing. Before starting a project, always make sure you have enough or more than enough yarn. Nothing sucks more than getting down to that last bit of your project and running out of yarn. That’s why I’m okay with two tone colors on it, or perhaps rolling the dice on dyelots. This is perhaps a total yarn fail. I may regret it when I get to the end and have to use a different color, but we’ll just see.

Step 2: Determine what size you are.

Bribery can get you anywhere. Well, most places. I offered to help my mother put up pictures if she would take all my measurements to determine the size I need. This is something that’s seriously useful to save, so you can refer back to those measurements when starting other projects.  made up a little sheet that lists everything that I’ll be keeping in my yarn notebook. It will also be quite useful for my sewing patterns as well.

Step 3: Do a Gauge Swatch!

This is the step I almost always skip. It seems tedious, and I just want to start on the project. I’m excited! I don’t want to wait. But, the usual arguments come up. You are depending on it being the size you make it. If you’re not knitting to the right gauge, which may require different needle sizes than recommended, then it’s not going to turn out to the measurements. Another important thing that I never want to do, is to wash you swatch. Wash it just like you would the garment and then measure. If you’re making it your project and it looks small, that’s okay because it may expand. On the other side too is making the garment and it fits perfectly, but when you wash it, it expands like crazy and ends up too big. It’s a PIA, but a couple hours doing my swatch will save me frustration down the road. I keep telling myself that…

And… I also have to admit I’ve been knitting. I love crochet, I have an afghan on my hook right now. But knitting has been different and I enjoy that too, so I’ve been exploring it. At first I felt like I had betrayed crochet and gone over to the dark side. I was too ashamed to post because I wasn’t crocheting much. And I’m a crochet teacher, I give my students this site for linking resources. Then, I read an article in Interweave Crochet about a wonderful designer. She did both knitting and crochet equally, and thought it was a wonderful compliment of each other. Why not do both? Why can’t we? I’ve labeled this blog as knitting and crochet.

So I got over myself. It’s a good thing to do! Don’t take yourself too seriously, and don’t worry about what others think. This blog will tend to go a little bit more towards the knitting side, and of course some randomness. First up is following a knitting pattern from start to completion!

My personal goal is to change my diet. First of all, thank you to everyone these past couple of weeks who have sent nice notes and well wishes about my stomach issues. It had been better, but it tanked yesterday. So my goal is to change my diet to stomach friendly foods. That means no more coffee, which to a Lutheran is devastating. No more soda, which I can live with, and nothing spicy (no, my Indian food!), as well as many other things on a long list.

I also encourage everyone to take those UFO’s (Unfinished Objects) out of the recesses of your closet and finish them. I started that last night, taking my projects along to my New Year’s Spaghetti Western Marathon. It’s always nice to crochet or knit while watching tv! I’m also going to get my butt in gear and finish up the patterns I’m making and post them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Year, and will continue to crochet in the year to come.

I’ve had some requests for a simple, straightforward hat. The Apple Pie hat, a free crochet pattern from Lion Brand, is a great beginning project. I will not personally be making this hat, I’m swamped making Christmas presents. But I encourage you to try this one out. It’s quick and it makes a great gift! You’ll need to sign up to Lion Brand’s website to have access to their free patterns. The sign up is free, and you can choose not to receive any emails.

Apple Pie Hat. Image copyright Lion Brand.

Apple Pie Hat from Lion Brand

My Level Rating: Beginner

This pattern is very straightforward. I’ve never had a problem with a Lion Brand pattern yet. Their yarn is quite nice too! The pom pom I’d say is optional if you don’t have a pom pom maker or know how to make one.

Make sure to get number 6, super bulky yarn. The thicker yarn contributes greatly to this pattern being quick to make. This hat would be a nice, warm gift for yourself and others. A really wonderful idea would be to make this hat pattern several times and donate these hats to the homeless. There are plenty of organizations that would love to take your donation!

Happy Crocheting!

On to the Hat! This weeks hat is a super cute childrens hat that I’m tempted to adjust to adult only because I want to wear it. My niece might be upset though if she didn’t get her hat, so I better make it for her.

Image Copyright Catherine Roujansky

Milla Fall Hat by Catherine Roujansky. This adorable hat is only available as a Ravelry download, and you can find it by the link above. Her ravelry name is knitisfun, so you can go look at her other patterns too. You do have a Ravelry account right? If not I highly encourage you to join!

My Level Rating: Beginner +

This pattern is extremely well written, it’s going in my examples of ‘great pattern writing’. It includes explanations of stitches, techniques, and colorful guide pictures. You can tell a lot of loving work was put into this, I’m excited to make it. This does use fingering weight yarn (like sock yarn), so you’ll need a smaller hook. The suggested hook is 3mm.

The only problem I have is that it’s fingering weight yarn. I don’t have any in my stash! I used it all for knitting socks. But, it is for my niece for Christmas, and I want to use nice yarn for this cute pattern. I hear knitpicks is having a sale on sock/fingering weight yarn… Oh the temptation! Wait, shipping time. That means my LYS, even more temptation!

I’ll post pictures after Christmas. Happy hat making everyone!

P.S.  Thank you to everyone who asked how my procedure went. I’m doing alright, although they did take lots of biopsies. At least I know what was destroying my stomach. The anasthesia has left me really sleepy, but I’m ok. Thank you for your well wishes.

Anyways, I thought I’d throw out the pattern for week two. I seem to be into front post double crochet lately, with the driftwood cap and now:

The Divine Hat by Rheatheylia.

My Level Rating: Advanced Beginner. (Need to know how to do front and back post double crochet.)

This hat looks elegant and complicated, and yet is quite straight forward. I think it would look great in a variety of colors. I may be heading towards dark blue or white for this hat. This pattern is super popular on Ravelry. If you have an account, I strongly encourage you to go look at other people’s pictures and see how nicely it turns out. I don’t have any pictures yet as I haven’t been able to start it yet. As soon as I do and am feeling better, I’ll edit this post to put a picture in.

Follow Up on Driftwood Cap: I finished the driftwood cap the week I suggested it. It didn’t take long, and once you get the hang of it, it’s great to crochet while watching TV. It turned out very flattering, and I’m planning on making it again in a different yarn. While the pattern is great, the yarn I used makes my head itchy (the multicolored one in the picture of the previous post). Again, I’ll post a pic of the finished product when I get better.

The weeks of hat will start up again next week when I’m hopefully better. I did finish the hat from week one, turned out nice! I’ll post pictures along with the new featured pattern next Tuesday.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Please go back and eat another piece of pie for me!

I’ll be featuring a hat pattern every week until the end of the year. That means I’ll have 7 new hats! The last week in December I’ll hope to feature an original pattern. Until then, please enjoy these other awesome patterns from great designers.

Fall and Winter, the best seasons of the year. Why? Because of all the great uses for crocheted items! This is the time of the year I crochet the most and my current theme is hats. Making hats are a great way to use up your stash, look stylish and stay warm all at the same time!

I have to admit though… my reason for making hats isn’t just to bust my stash. Lately I’ve  been too lazy in the mornings to flat iron my hair, so I throw on my favorite hat. I hadn’t realized how often I’d been wearing it until I was at dinner with my mother. She gave me an odd look and said “You seem to be living in that hat lately, what’s going on?” After that I decided I needed to vary up the hats.

Here’s the hat for this week! I’ll post finished pictures in next week’s pattern.

Driftwood Cap by Ellen K. Gormley

Solid and Multi-colored in Progress.

My Level Rating: Advanced Beginner (Need to know how to crochet in the round and how to do post stitches. Stitches are explained and shown in the pattern and back of the magazine. You can always look up the stitches on youtube or google.)

I’ve had this pattern since I bought the fall 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet in… fall of 2008. I’ve been wanting to make it, but you know how things fall to the wayside. It’s a really pretty pattern, so I’m glad I’ve gotten to it. You can find back issues of Interweave Crochet in many local yarn stores, or from their website.

So far it’s been working up quickly, and the pattern instructions are clear which makes for fast crocheting.  I did use the magic loop method to start it out instead of the chains, but that’s my personal preference. The only advice I would give on this project is to make sure you have enough yarn. Usually I fudge it because I’m going from my stash. I was betting I’d have enough of one type of yarn and I didn’t, so I started it again with another yarn I knew I had enough of. I’ll probably make two of these, one in multi-colored and one in a solid color yarn that I have.

I hope everyone enjoys making this hat, I know I’m having fun!