Starry Night Reflective Beanie

Red Heart has come out with an exciting new yarn called Reflective.  Right now, it is pretty hard to come by.  I happened to be in the right place at the right time and managed to get ahold of some. For the most part, I am loving it. It is a bulky weight yarn. (5) I love the way the weight of it feels. So, maybe that doesn't make total sense, but it has a comfortable heaviness to it. The reflective thread, woven into the skein, creates an amazing effect when it's hit with light. (You can see it in the picture when the hat is photographed with a flash.)
While I am generally thrilled with this yarn, a few thing warrant a mention. I would not recommend this yarn for small children, or hats for bald people, unless you plan on lining your project. The reflective strand is just a bit scratchy. Secondly, the skeins I have worked with so far, about six of them, have been very difficult to pull from the center. I have had to pull quite a chunk from the center to find the start. One skein in particular was so difficult to get to I ended up unwinding the entire skein to get it untangled. Lastly, and probably most discouraging, is that I have found at least one section of yarn on each skein where there was a knot attaching the yarn together, and a few spots the yarn was a bit "puffy" ar freyed looking. I have been fortunate so far that it has worked into the back of my project. However, I have heard nothing but good about Red Heart's customer service and feel if I contact them with concerns they'll make it right.
The pros far out weigh the cons as far as I am concerned. I will keep purchasing and keep using it!

Starry Night Beanie

Materials:
Red Heart Reflective
1 Skein Black
1/2 Skein Grey
J hook
Tapestry needle for working in ends

Gauge:
6 DC = 2 in.
4 rows = 2 in.

DC - Double Crochet
SC - Single Crochet
Join - (Join the end of each round by slip stitching into the top of the first Double Crochet

Work rows as follows: Start with black for first three rows. Switch to grey on Row 4 and Row 5, back to black for four rows and back to grey for Row 10 and Row 11, then back to black for the remainder of the hat.

Start with Magic Ring, Chain 2
Row 1:  9 DC in Magic Ring, join. Chain 2
Row 2: 2 DC in each stitch and join. Chain 2.
Row 3: 2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next stitch, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 4:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 2 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 5:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 3 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 6:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 4 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 7:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 8 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 8- 15: DC in each stitch around, joining and chaining 2 after each round.
Row 16: SC in each stitch around, join and tie off.

Use a tapestry needle to weave end threads into the hat.

For a slouchier hat, The length of this hat can be adjusted by adding additional rows before you add the row of SC.

Craft Shows and Orders and Gifts! Oh, My!

Tis the season. Hard to believe I have not posted since October 2nd! Fall has arrived, and so has the busy. October was full of hustle and bustle and my hook got so busy my hand decided to protest. Here is a peek at some of what I've been doing...

A dear friend of mine has been battling cancer, I flew out to Illinois to visit with her and attend a benefit auction. While there I made her a horse hat per her request along with a few other crochet items that went into a raffle. I didn't use a pattern for this, but there are some great patterns out there!

For Breast Cancer Awareness month, I put together this hat and wristers set using Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Baby Yarn in Tea Roses. I used a basic beanie pattern for the hat, a row of double crochet for the ribbon, and Red Heart's pattern for the wristers. Pattern Here (Free Pattern)

What does the fox say??  If you have not seen this video yet, take a moment and watch. (You will either love it or hate it.)

I'm in the love camp on this one, and had to try this Sly Fox Hat Pattern by Lisa Gutierrez (Free Pattern) It was a hit and was one of the first hats to go at the craft show I did last weekend!

So I did my first craft show last weekend. All things considered it went quite well. I have one more on the 16th and one in December. It is going to be a busy few months. One of the favorites was this scarf. Though I didn't use a pattern for it, there is a very similar pattern on Ravelry by Christy Fisher (Paid Pattern)

I have also been playing with itty bitty stuff! My son's teacher had a new baby and he wanted to give her an owl hat. I used the owl hat pattern from Repeat Crafter Me (Free Pattern) with just a few minor changes, the diaper cover is by Boomer Beanies'(Paid Pattern).

And this set for a friend who's granddaughter was born 7 weeks early. There isn't a pattern for the hat, but the booties are from Deb's Crafts (Free Pattern) I would have never thought to make the booties with an open heel so they can wear them even if the wires are attached to their little feet.

There is so much more I would like to share with you, but I have craft shows to prepare for, orders to fill, and gifts to be made! The holidays are quickly approaching and there is way to much cool stuff out there I want to try.  I leave you with this...my little Crochet Protege'...Elsa is one of my daycare babies and she loves to pretend to crochet!

Happy Crocheting!!

My Two Cents

There are three days left of voting in the My Mountain Hat Design Contest, thank goodness! It has been a wild ride.  I was rapidly reminded why I do not like voting competitions. Not on a public level. Though, I can't complain, because I was fully aware of what I was getting into. I got free yarn to design a hat. Free yarn, now that in and of itself was worth my time. Right? The rules were simple, request yarn, design a hat, send in a picture of said hat. Voila! said hat. (As if you don't already know what it looks like.)

Moving on...once all hats were submitted and deadline passed we got to wait while My Mountain endured the painstaking task of picking 15 finalists. They couldn't, hence the reason you are all now voting on 18 hats.  So much talent!

Next on the agenda: online voting. It was supposed to be one vote per person. I was thrilled. I can get on board with that. Because of an unexpected glitch, and to keep things fair it switched to one vote, per person, per ip address, per day. YIKES! That's more than a mouthful. 

Is it a popularity contest at this point? Well, kind of yes. Or maybe it is a who can bug your friends the most contest. Pretty sure we all got the same set of guidelines that said this was going to a vote. Has it been fun...ummm, no! I have probably had a friend or two drop me from their friends list, or at the very least hidden me from their news feeds. I have been posting about the contest daily, multiple times daily, my friends have come into it with me and they are doing the same, as are their friends. I have reached out to my community and asked them to help me. And they have. It is text message reminders for friends to vote. It has been a non stop effort on many parts since the moment they posted the top 18. 

I have managed to stay at the top, so far. Does this mean I am the most popular? Yeah, NO. Does it mean I have the best hat in the competition? Yeah, NO. Does this mean I am obtaining votes by cheating the system? Yeah, NO.  It just means right now I have the most votes. I have a lot of people in my corner who are willing to push things tirelessly. Do I believe that if this was a competition based completely on the merits of my hat I could win? Yeah, YES. But so could any of the other designs. Because they are all really good. 

I will note this, if there are contests like this in the future, might I suggest My Mountain have two categories of contestants. One for crochet designs and one for knit designs. In my humble opinion, it is like judging apples against oranges.

So....the vote and the designers. As a crocheter, I was thrilled to see 5 of the 18 designs were crochet, those patterns I can try out! Here are the other 4 crochet designs. I am glad you are able to vote for more than one hat, so I can support some fellow crocheters. 

Beautiful Ducklings
 I love the design on this and can't wait to get the pattern
so I can see how she added all those white bits in!

One Loop Shy Designs
Sadly, what you can't see in this picture is the amazing swirl
design at the top of this hat.

Loose-Enz Crochet
What a fun yarn used in this one. Loving the colors.

Misty Makes
I'm quite interested to see how the zig zag pattern was created on this one!

Crochet designs aside, there are few other hats that make me go wow, and tempt me to temporarily put my hook down for a set of needles...or maybe not. But I would certainly consider purchasing these hats if I saw them in the store. My personal favorites, and they have been since the start. I told my friends I thought they would make the final 15 before the list even came out. I vote for them every day.

Just Knots
I am a sucker for nautical! I just love this.

Mary Kubasek
Love, love, love...this is by far my most used punctuation.

I love my hat. I am not even close to the same caliber as some of these designers, but I think I came up with a fun and original design that many people will love making and adding their own personal flair to. I'm glad I entered this contest. It has really motivated me to jump start my desire to make crocheting a more integral part of my life. It has opened my eyes to some good and some bad sides to this industry, it has inspired me, it has allowed me to meet some new people, make some new friends, and did I mention I got free yarn?!

Now go, vote for the hats you love, I did!  My Mountain Hat Design Contest

Edited to add:  Seems that great minds think alike, go check out Rohn Strong's blog where guest blogger Lars Rains talks about My Mountain Contest and how they are supporting each other's designs. A Different Perspective

Basic Beanie Adult Hat

BASIC Beanie Hat (Adult Size)

Hook Size J
This hat works with Lion's Brand and Red Heart Yarn Worsted yarn. I used Lion's Brand for this hat. 

DC - Double Crochet
HDC - Half Double Crochet
Join - (Join the end of each round by slip stitching into the top of the first Double Crochet)



Start with Magic Ring, Chain 2
Row 1: 10 DC in Magic Ring, join. Chain 2
Row 2: 2 DC in each stitch and join. Chain 2.
Row 3: 2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next stitch, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 4:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 2 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 5:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 3 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 6:  2 DC in first stitch 1 DC in next 4 stitches, Repeat until you have come back around and join at the top of your first DC. Chain 2.
Row 7 - 15: DC in each stitch around, joining and chaining 2 after each round. 

Row 16: HDC in each stitch around, join and tie off.

Use a tapestry needle to weave end threads into the hat.

For the hat shown, I switched to white on Row 7 and Row 8, back to blue for three rows and back to white for Row 12 and Row 13.

The length of this hat can be adjusted by adding additional rows before you add the row of HDC.