So Many Hats, So Few Blog Entries!

I've been horribly slack about updating the blog lately.  Things have been very busy here.  The kids are finally back to school and are settling in to their new classes and making new friends.  I love this time of year!  October is my favourite month.  I find that the natural beauty here in Vancouver certainly leaves no lack of inspiration.

So what have I been up to the last few weeks in Yarnland?  Mostly hats, hats, and more hats!  I had a few friends who wanted Groot hats made for them, so I had to try to remember how I made the first one.  I tried keeping some notes on it over the next few I made, but they are nowhere near what would pass for a publishable pattern.  I've had some more minion hats requested.  In fact, the next four items to fall off my hook will all be minion-related.  Two of them I'm designing myself, so that always take a lot longer for me than just following a pattern.  I also had a request for a Unikitty (from The Lego Movie) hat.  I couldn't find a pattern for one, so, again I just made the hat up as I went along. I'm pretty happy with the end result (though if I ever made another, I would assemble it in a different order than I did this time).  I'm looking forward to seeing this little Unikitty in her costume on Halloween!


Speaking of Halloween, it has to be my favourite holiday!  I've been quite busy making things for other people lately, but I did take a little time out to make something to decorate our house for the holiday!  The good folks over at The Crochet Crowd are having another one of their fabulous challenges.  This particular challenge involved making a yarn wreath in a Halloween theme.  They really left a lot of room for creativity in this challenge.  I chose to use a pool noodle for my wreath form, and wrap it in yarn.  In retrospect, I could have crocheted a cover for the noodle faster than wrapping the noodle! To keep in the spirit of the challenge, I decided to try something that has always kind of scared me, and tried crocheting with ruffle yarn. I can't even begin to tell you how silly I felt for avoiding this stuff for so long- it is ridiculously easy to do!  So I used it for the trim of my wreath, found some silvery fabric in my scrap box, and went to work.  It is now hanging on the wall in our hallway, since we can't close the screen door if we hang it on the front door. 

 I managed to finish up a little something for myself this morning.  I had been working on this on short car trips. I'm very, very happy with this scarf!  My Road Trip Scarf, while it did turn out very pretty, is just not my style.  I can't pull off the triangular scarf as well as a lot of people seem to.  I made this scarf with Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable in the colorway Stained Glass.  I love these colours and I would wear them in any season.  It is a very simple shell stitch that is staggered.  However, it is a pleasant stitch to look at (instead of just a plain old double crochet), but not so busy that it detracts from the colour.  I wore it out and about today and had several comments on it, which always makes me feel good.  The closer up pictures shows the stitching better, as well as the colours.  My flash didn't go off in the first picture, apparently.

Until next time,
Happy Hooking!

Darrah