If you can’t fight, wear a stupid hat. September 25, 2011

This post is a bit of a moan on my part.  I do apologise in advance.

As winter approaches and I finished my scarf, I had the urge to try making some kind of headgear.  As I’ve said before, I cannot crochet hats. I don’t know why.  There is some disconnect between my brain and my hands which means the things I produce just don’t fit and/or look hideous.  Some eternally optimistic part of me, however, seems to think that if I practise enough I can overcome this problem so I have spent the last couple of weeks hunting for a pattern to tempt me into trying again.

My first attempt was the Any Gauge Beret pattern in the most recent issue of Inside Crochet.  The final result was an abomination which I frogged before anyone could see it.  I am sure the pattern is fine and the problem lies with me but, honestly, it was a floppy, misshapen mess and a waste of good wool.

Then I spent sometime rummaging around on Ravelry and found the Durango Hat pattern.  It was free, masses of people had managed to make it work and it looked quite sweet so I thought I would have a crack at that instead.

I didn’t actually manage to stick to the pattern as published.  I had to add a considerable number of rounds after row 7 to get a hat rather than a yarmulke.  I was using the prescribed yarn weight and hook size but there was no way an 11 round version of this was going to cover my head.  God only knows what it is I did to make this necessary.

I do like the raised effect on the main body of the hat.

The other modification I had to make was to use a double stand of wool for the brim.  One strand worked but the whole effect was a bit too holey-looking for my tastes.

Not sure why I am posting a "front view" too as you can slap it on your head at any angle. It feels necessary though.

The upshot of all this is that I have a hat, it fits and it (sort of) matches my scarf.  I am not totally enamoured of it but I am chalking it up as a win nonetheless. Now the question remains, will I actually bring myself to wear it in public…

<Walks off grumbling to herself and kicking things.>

Monkey wears a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool. December 29, 2010

Monkey saw the trailer for the 2011 series of Doctor Who and the Doctor was wearing a Stetson.  There was only one possible outcome.

 

I'll need a pot of coffee, 12 Jammy Dodgers and a Fez.

And maybe some bananas too.

With a little bit of manipulation, it is also possible to turn it into a 1950s spiv’s hat so Monkey is extra happy.

Monkey wears a fez now. Fezzes are cool August 1, 2010

The fez was a doddle to knock up in an hour so Monkey is now very happy indeed.

What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?

The Game is Afoot

Monkey and I very much enjoyed Sherlock last week and are looking forward to another great hour and a half tonight.  Monkey felt that he really needed to get into the spirit of thing, however, so he wanted a deerstalker hat.  A quick bit of crochet this morning and I could oblige him.  I am rather pleased with how it came out.

Monkey sets out on his first case.

I am not sure a human-sized one made to the same pattern would be such a success.  In a rash moment I have also promised a monkey-sized fez to fulfill his Doctor Who ambitions.  I don’t think I will get much peace until I deliver the goods.

Martha’s Hat February 14, 2010

Despite having crocheted for a few years now, I have always had a problem with hats.  I don’t know what I do wrong but, despite gauging a swatch, paying close attention to hook size, tension and yarn, my hats always seemed to be doomed to failure.  They came out too big or too small or just a really strange shape no matter how hard I concentrated.  *I would get so far in, realise that the whole thing had gone horribly wrong again, unravel like a maniac and sulk.** I repeated this sequence from * to ** on a semi-regular basis whenever I ran into a pattern that I thought would look great on my head.

This winter I decided that I had to break the cycle.  Hats are recommended to newbies as a step up from scarves for heaven’s sake!  I could follow any number of more complex patterns so I was determined that I had to crack the headwear problem.  This determination, however, then coincided with a dearth of patterns that I actually liked.  I has already made a shell scarf from a pattern in Inside Crochet so my choice of colour and wool was already set and that made finding the right hat even harder.

Eventually my inspiration came from the brilliant Crafty Tardis – I lurk here a lot, enviously eyeing people’s Doctor Who creations.  Someone had posted a plea for a pattern for the crocheted tam-o-shanter that Martha wore during Family of the Blood.  She only wore it in a small number of scenes so you will have to excuse the screen-cap below but it gives you the general idea.

That was the hat I wanted – only not in pink and not quite so big and without the pom-pom which adorned the top of it.  A couple of people on the web had had a stab at patterns but I hit the same problems with hats that I had always had.  One hexagonal version I tried came out looking like a crocheted crown.  This time, however, I really wanted the hat in question so I threw the patterns aside and decided to free-hand one in treble crochet rounds… and added a tassel because I had only recently learnt to make them… and made it in green not pink… and so I ended up with

In my head it’s a Martha Jones hat and it makes me very happy.  In reality I think it’s akin to the philosopher’s axe. I might look back in a few years and shudder to think I ever wore it out in public but the joy of having created my own hat hasn’t worn off just yet.  Now, if only I could learn to follow a pattern.