Thursday, December 8, 2016

Bun Hat - a free pattern



Messy Bun Hat

There are a ton of bun hat patterns popping up everywhere. But they were lacking a little something for me. I went ahead and took the inspiration and made it my own.

I used Unforgettable Yarn from Red Heart 70 grams/200 yards total. That it is less than one ball but this hat is worked holding two strands together. I was making more than one hat (of course!) so I just held two strands together from separate balls of the yarn. If you are just making one hat I would divide the yarn prior to starting your hat...this is not a great hat to work from both ends of the ball on, in my opinion.

Surprisingly, since I worked from the outside of both balls the yarn colors changed in the same way at the same time so you can hardly even tell I held two strands together when looking at my hat. Next time I will be making one where I start on different colors. I love my Tealberry colorway and would love to see those colors play together even more.

I work in rounds for the body of this hat. I do not slip stitch, chain 2. I just work in a spiral all the way up. The decreases I make are taken at the seam in back. To make this easy to see I put a locking stitch marker so that I have a mental reminder of where the back seam is.

So here is what I used!

1 ball of Unforgettable Red Heart Yarn separated into two balls.
I hook
H hook
Locking Stitch marker 
Yarn Needle to weave in the ends

I used these stitches and abbreviations!

sc - single crochet
sc blo - single crochet through the back loops only (when looking at the top v that a stitch makes, you are working only in the branch that is farther away from you.
hdc - half double crochet
dec hdc - decrease half double crochet
yo, insert into next stitch, yo, pull back, yo insert into the second stitch, yo, pull back, yo and pull through all of the loops on the hook.

And here is what I did!

We will start by making a long strip of sc in the back post only that will fit around your head. It will be 70 rows of 8 single crochets.



With your I Hook while holding 2 strands of yarn together chain 9, turn
sc in the second chain from the hook and across (8sc)
*ch 1, turn, sc in each stitch across (8sc) in BACK LOOPS ONLY*
repeat * to * 68 times. Do not Fasten Off.

This ribbed band of 70 rows should fit nicely around the head of most teens and women. Its stretchy!

When your band is complete place fold in half lengthwise (like in the picture above) with right sides facing and single crochet these together to form a loop. This is your hat band and will look much neater in a color changing yarn that it would if you used a Back Post/Front Post Double Crochet. I make alot of baby hats this way too because they grow so quickly. This stretchy band makes it so they can wear the hat longer.

Now to make the body of your hat!

Continuing with the same I hook and the same yarn strand (still held double) that you had not fastened off after seaming up the band.

1) chain 2 and HDC in each stitch along the side of your hat band across (70) place marker as the start of the next row.
2) *hdc across until the last 4 stitches before marker, half double crochet decrease 2 times*
3-7) repeat * to * 5 times. Change to H hook
8-10) repeat * to * 3 times

We have decreased 2 stitches per row for 9 rows now. We are down to 52 stitches and the hat is nearly done. We will now decrease a bit more aggressively so it really hugs the top of your head to show off that messy bun!

11) hdc, dec hdc around to the marker
12) dec hdc around to marker.
13) sc around to marker, slip stitch into the first stitch of the row and FASTEN OFF! *confetti*

Weave in your heads, take a picture, post it to Instagram and tag me (Im MelodyCrochet).

Keep warm guys!

With love,

Melody

There are affiliate links in this pattern. Thank you SO much if you use them. I only link to things that I have used and enjoy.






Friday, June 24, 2016

Back from the Sticks

Hi all!

Lately, I have been polishing off my knitting lessons. I am feeling secure enough to leave the emersion and venture back into crochet without forgetting everything that I learned about knitting. I figure I will keep knitting to socks and crochet everything else. I miss my hooks.

Happy Mail:

I have been a swapping fool as of late. Just ravenous to send and receive.


Today this beautiful package arrived from a project bag swap on Ravelry!


She sewed an amazing and beautiful bag fromt he Hue Loco tutorial. (I love Nicole and her yarn and her bags and her videos). I cannot believe my swapping partner isn't a seasoned seamstress. She claims to be new to the art. I am thinking in a past life she sewed alot. 

The yarn that she gifted me awesome, too! The two balls on the left are Deborah Norville Serenity Sock in Violas. SO pretty and soft. I use the nude to dye on sometimes. I just love the way it knits up. 

The two balls on the right are hard to see in my picture. The yarn is dark but gorgeous. Its Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn in the Celestial Colors colorway. This Kroy Socks has a tougher feel but it makes up some socks that last and after a few washings they bloom into some really great feeling socks. Great for my family because we are not kind to our socks. This is what it looks like in the light:



Those colors are just magical to me. I love purples and blues. I cannot wait to get started!

I am not sure what type of yarn that big ball in the middle is but it looks like it will stripe up beautifully. I think it will be the next sock on my needles. 

AND I received this package yesterday from a Craftster swap. Her name is LinyV321 and she does the most beautiful embroidery. Our theme was "monsters":


Above is my youngest looking REALLY excited about the package because he is just like me. REALLY excited about receiving packages.  Below is a picture of all of the amazing goodies that were inside of the package. Such a thoughtful package. I am loving that dishcloth. 


Feeding the Stash:

Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable in Tealberry

Two days ago I was walking through Michaels needing absolutely NO yarn. Then I saw this staring up at me innocently. It was like a kitten. Super soft and needing to come home with me! It has teal and shades of deep purple set off by ashy browns and peachy creams. I almost crumbled when I saw it. It is beautiful! In the picture below it is becoming a knitted shawl but that just won't work out.

It turns out I like Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable a lot better crocheted than I do knitted. I am almost certain that I will be trashing the used portion. You don't frog Unforgettable...its a nightmare to frog. It leaves you with a fuzzy, unshiny mess and it snags terribly while you are ripping out the stitches. Nothing short of a wrestling match. I have used maybe $1.50 worth of the yarn. I can trash that portion without it hurting.

I was thinking that this would make a pretty Virus Shawl. In my opinion, that looks better in more gentle variegations. The stark dark and light of this colorway would distract my eye from the Virus Shawls charming details. More thought is needed. Do you have any suggestions?


Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable in Tealberry
Purchased at: Michaels
$6 a ball
100g/3.5 ounce ball is 280 yards
Worsted Weight
100% acrylic
You CAN machine wash it. But I wouldn't. A quick sink wash in handsoap, lay it flat on a towel, roll the towel up to get all of the moisture out without making it misshapen. Lay it on a dry surface after the towel and it will be dry in no time because it is acrylic. I have several items made from unforgettable they are all still in great shape with all their rich colors years later.

Where we have gone:

The library. It's been super hot. Playing in the backyard works for me. I have made a goal to go exploring once a week for the summer. Preferably on Thursday. I even bought this cute backpack my exploring days! I nabbed it at Platos closet for $16. I was pretty thrilled. I love that shade of blue!

That being said today was Thursday. I knew it was exploring day and for the life of me I could not remember where I wanted to go. I may need to jot these things down as they come to mind.

What I am watching:

I just finished binge watching Gilmore Girls. I had never seen it before. It was really cute and I am looking forward to the revival that they are promising will be around soon! That was pretty beefy to watch. It was 7 season of 22ish episodes each. I am thinking that I will try Hart of Dixie next. I like lighthearted stuff while I am crafting.

What I am drinking:

Aside from my tons of coffee? I have been all about Tea Pigs Mint and Licorice tea. Its so sweet and amazingly spearminty. If you want to try it then I hope that you can find it near you because I cannot find any online for a reasonable price. Buying it at Central market I only paid $4 for 15 cute silky tea pyramids.


Thank you for stopping by and catching up. I hope that you have an amazing week. (((hugs)))



Please note that I use affiliate links. If you use them I really appreciate it.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Meatloaf Muffins



Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit

1 lb ground beef 85/15
2T Italian bread crumbs
Big Squirt of Ketchup
Little Squirt of Yellow Mustard
1t pepper
1t garlic powder
1t Italian seasoning
2 eggs

I put it all in a bowl and mooshed (technical term) until uniformly combined. Then formed large enough meatballs to heapingly fill the cup of a regular sized muffin tin. I had enough meatloaf to fill 6 of the cups perfectly.

In the oven please put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin pan. Some fat spilled over (on to our fries...thank GOODNESS they were there or that would have been a mess).

Bake for 20 minutes.
Take them out and put a little ketchup on each and put them back in the oven and back until cooked through. Mine took another 15 minutes.

Nutrition per meatloaf muffin: 198 calories, 3 carbs, 13 grams of fat, 16 grams of protein

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Nigellas' beautiful Clementine Cake!



Hi All! Happy New Year!

I am so excited about 2016. We ended up finding the home of our dreams after an "interesting" rental experience. It was not convenient to have my yarn out or blog or share. But I learned so much about what I really want in a home. And we found it. We moved in December 18th and its just been amazing to finally feel at home.

Today my husband is working through the evening. Sometimes it is more convenient for him to work when other people have gone home. He has more room and freedom to get his work done. He is quite the work tornado. So this evening was just me and Izzy. Being at home and lazy with a six year old is so relaxing. We played Don't Break the Ice and watched a few shows. I got all of my housework done for tomorrow. I poached chicken for this weeks lunches and made an amazing pot of tea. And...a cake!

I love Nigella Lawson. She has been my absolute favorite celebrity chef for as long as I can remember. Her laid back, genuine style just makes me feel more comfortable jumping in the kitchen and attempting new things.

Today her recipe of the day was a clementine cake. I really push the vitamin C on my guys this time of year. I have lots of left over clementines and I got right to boiling 4 of them.



I adjusted the recipe slightly because my springform pan is larger than the one she suggested.

I used:

4 clementines
7 eggs
3 cups of almond meal (the whole bag)
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

It still just needed 1 hour at 375 and I covered it with a foil tent after 40 minutes.

The cake is moist, sweet-but-not-too-sweet and orangy. The house smells amazing. I tried to wait until it was cooled off to eat it but that was impossible. Now I have breakfast for the rest of the week!






Featured Post

Exploring Local Creativity at the Texas State Fair