A Hat Inspired by the Mountains it will be Used On
Last Christmas in Iowa I offered to make my brother a crocheted hat. A beanie, specifically, because that’s what snowboarders wear.
Snowboarders can be pretty serious about their beanies.
{Jeff wearing the hat. Jeremy has a bigger head than either of us. When I wear it, it comes down over my eyes.}
Jeremy took me up on the beanie offer and made his specifications: red on top, then blue, then charcoal. He picked out the yarn himself at Jo-Ann’s: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in Charcoal and Medium Blue and Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky in red ochre. I’m amazed I know what the red one is, because Wesley LOVED it and tried to eat it at every opportunity. Wesley did away with the label a long time ago.
Jeremy requested that the hat depict his very favorite thing, mountains. That it match his snowboarding gear (blue and red). That it have a puffy yarn puffy thing on top made of all three colors. That it have a fleece ear lining for comfort.
Thus it was that this rather epically warm hat was made.
The color changes are made by carrying both yarns along as you crochet (i.e. tapestry crochet). I carried 2 strands of red or blue or gray the entire way, even if I wasn’t changing colors within a row, because I wanted the whole thing to be the same thickness.
I used a size L hook to do this. Even so, the hook was almost too small for 2 pieces of chunky yarn. It’s a thick hat. Sturdy. Squishy. I dare say this hat will take Jeremy comfortably through negative temps with no problems.
This was my third try making it. Totally my own pattern. I think I got it right this time. Can you see the ribbing on the bottom? It’s hard to see. It’s crochet-in-the-back post faux ribbing, i.e. 2 stitches regular, 2 stitches back post, repeat around.
The pattern (it’s a graph) is uploaded in case anyone would like to try, and is located here: Mountain Beanie – Excel or Mountain Beanie – PDF. It doesn’t have much explanation, just shows how many stitches in each repeat and the colors, and the number of stitches around for each of the 28 rows. My notes on carrying yarn and the ribbing are in the post. If anyone has problems with it, let me know!
Now to mail it to Jeremy.
Update: Added links to explanations of color changes for crochet, below.
By the way, when I didn’t like my color changes on Draft 1, I went to the Interwebs, and came up with a list of articles how to crochet color changes the right way. I’ll update my other post with the chart with these.
How to Crochet Using a Chart or Graph (includes color change)
Tapestry Crochet – right or left hand color changing. From Carol Ventura, who’s written tapestry crochet books.
How to Switch Colors and Use a Chart – Crochet by April Draven
An interesting yarn-joining/color-changing technique. Russian? Maybe.
An Awareness of Time Passing
At the beginning of this month (aww crap it’s already next month, nevermind) January I wrote out a sort of plan for production of creative things for the year. And already, I’m behind. I thought of time passing, about how I now have just 11 months to feel accomplished about my year!
And then I said no. I am not going to beat myself up about this. I know this happens. It is not a real problem and I am not actually upset. I think, in fact, that I’ve soldiered quite bravely on in the face of some disappointing problems that require fortitude to correct. You see, sometimes when I encounter a problem, I solve it by just getting rid of the problem. You have to admit, it is a type of solution. However, when the problem in question is something you’ve spent hours or days working on, it’s not so easy to just get rid of it. Actually, I think it would feel physically painful to try to throw something away like a sweater I crocheted.
The red sweater is a good example of this. After my last post, I sewed up the sides. As I suspected, the sweater does not fit – the arms are too small and it requires decreases in the yoke. I am going to have to rip out the entire yoke, detach the sleeves and start on this part again. I do not want to. It makes me want to throw a two-year-old’s tantrum. But I will finish. Later. When I’m not so irritated that just looking at the problem makes me feel a little, ok a lot stabby. It’s a long version of that “count to 10″ recommendation for people with tempers.
Then there is the case of Jeremy’s Mountain Hat.
First, I made a mountain crochet chart. The chart is awesome. Then I made a beanie crown. The crown was … meh. Then I started making the rest of the hat, and encountered HAT FAIL. (1) I didn’t like my color changes, and (2) somehow I lost 10 stitches around. That’s right. I went from 72 stitches around to 62. The yarn that I’m working with is bulky, and when you carry yarn, sometimes the stitch the color changes on ceases to look like a stitch, so I ended up accidentally skipping it in the next row. I thought I was losing my mind.
PLUS -(3) the crown color yarn is slightly less bulky than the other two yarns, and I’m using tapestry crochet (where you carry 2 strands of yarn) for the pattern part. Ergo – there’s a significant fabric difference between the Not-as-thick-single-strand-crochet of the crown and Thicker-two-strand-crochet of the pattern. It was not attractive.
So I frogged the whole thing.
I going to start over. And when I’m done, it will be a thing of joy and beauty.
Just you wait.
I get ideas while I sleep …
On Saturday morning I woke up with an idea to do a papercut. The subject I wanted to do is not actually this, but when I try something new I usually do flowers the first time, it’s a recurring theme. This was one of those usual times, so I did this.
It was fun. Papercutting. It was nice to think of something and do it in one day. Most of the things I think of take a lot more time. It looks nice with light behind it … so I’m trying to think of a way to mount this so I can have space in between the two layers and allow some light to filter through as well. I sense a trip to a framing store coming on.
While I was doing this one, I was talking to my brother. He saw the final and liked it, so I said I’d make him one. I figured I could handle something a little more complex on time 2. His request was expected – he also has a usual theme that he requests on a regular basis, and it’s not flowers. I’ll give you a hint, his email signature is “I fear flat planets.”
Can anyone guess what mountain this is? If you follow the picture to Flickr, you will see, but if anyone can guess that would make me happy that I got it sort of right. The inspiration for my original pencil sketch was a great photo by birder7 I found on Flickr. This one also does well being backlit. An Jeremy, once I figure out the frame, I’ll send this to you.
Papercutting is fun, if a little hard on the fingers holding the X-acto knife. Next time, I’ll investigate using a thimble on my forefinger. All those tiny trees! The backgrounds are watercolors. I’m not sure if I’d like these as much if they weren’t transparent colors.
Since this wasn’t exactly the theme I had in mind – I have a scene in my head I’m not sure how to execute – I think I will try a couple more (once my finger recovers) and see if I can really manage to put on paper (or cut out of paper) what I was thinking of. Ooh! Just thought of another one too …
