My Monster Hat

Monster Hat 

Well hello and welcome to the crazy hat week that I seem to be having!!! Definitely needed in this chilli weather!!! Brrrrrr!! So I have now shared with you two ubberly simple hat patterns. So now it’s time to show you the oh so simple accessorisation process!! Yes – I think I am going hat mad!!! So today’s hat design is the lovely monster hat!! I wanted to show you how you can easily turn the Weekend Hat or Simply Snuggly Hat into a monster hat with just a few extra trimmings. Hee hee!!! I reckon my son needs one now!! Maybe a different colour though!!

Ok so the hat pattern that I am using here is my Weekend Hat, which I published on my blog yesterday. So you can find that in the pattern section to the right of this or below if you are on a smart phone/tablet under the name Weekend Hat.

This pattern will help you to create googly eyes and sew on eyebrows and a mouth, oooo and Pom Poms for the ears or hair.

Level – Easy

Supplies – 

For this hat you will need a 4mm crochet hook, scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle. You will also need about 10g of white double knit wool and about 1 metre of black double knit yarn. You can use either wool or cotton for this. And you will also need a Pom Pom or two depending on which design you would like to make. Your Pom Pom may come with a popper attachment, but if not you might need one to attach it on with a needle and bit of thread.

Stitches – 

Magic Ring – Fold over the yarn to make the loop. Insert your hook through the loop and grab the working yarn (long piece) and pull through the loop. Hold the tail and the working yarn and pull so that the knot tightens, but you still have a loop. This has created a magic ring.

Slip stitch (ss) – This is where there is no height to the stitch. It’s usually used to join rounds. So insert the hook into the front of the stitch you are joining to. This is usually the first stitch you made in that round/row. So yarn over hook and pull through that first stitch then also through the loop on your hook.

Chain (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.

Double Crochet (dc) – Insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have two loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Ok so here we go …

Googly Eyes

Right then, so we are going to make some googly eyes. So you need your white and black yarn. Start by making a magic ring with your white yarn.

Now chain 1 and then work 6dc into the ring

Ok so slip stitch into the first dc to make a ring. Don’t forget to pull the tail really tight to create the nice tight circle.

Now work 2dc stitches into each stitch until you have 12 stitches. (12)

Now work *1dc then 2dc stitches into the next stitch* and repeat this ** 6 times. (18)

Finally work *2dc and then 2dc into the next stitch.*  Repeat this ** 6 times. Now fasten off your yarn leaving a long tail so that the eyes can be sewn on. (24)

Make sure you make two of these eyes, one after the other. It is important that you have two when you come to sew them on, as you can see exactly where you want them to be placed on the hat.

Ok, so now it’s time to finish the eyes with the pupil. Start by threading your needle with the black yarn and then knotting the end. Then thread it through from the back, through the middle of the white part of the eye.

Now you need to sew up and over 2 stitches to create the pupil. You can make these pupils as small or as big as you like depending how many stitches you go over.

I tend to work about 4 or 5 stitches over the top of each other to form the pupil.

Ok, so now it’s time to sew around the edges of the eye using the long tail and your needle and attach them to the hat. I have sewn on many of these types of eyes in my time and I have found the best way is to work your way up and down in and out of each stitch. You can see in the picture below how I am going back into the next stitch. This will ensure the sewing on thread is hidden and will give a much neater finish to your project.

Once you have finished sewing on your eye, secure the yarn at the back of your hat and fasten off. Don’t forget to sew in your ends at the back of the hat. Now onto the second eye and sew on as before. Make sure that you keep checking the eyes are level and placed where you want them to be. Don’t be afraid to undo and start again, if it goes a little wonky!!

To work the eye brows, you can carry on using the black yarn from the eyes. So come up where you want the eyebrow to start and then literally insert it back into where the eyebrow needs to finish.

Now to get to where the next eyebrow needs to be, just weave your needle through the back of the stitches of the hat, making sure it’s not visible from the front to where is needs to be. Then repeat the eyebrow process.

Then do the same with the mouth – weaving it down the hat at the back and then come up where the mouth needs to be and back in to the back.

This time you need to anchor it down in the middle by inserting a tiny little stitch up and over the mouth to secure it in place.

Then secure the thread at the back of the hat, fasten off and sew in your ends.

Now all you need to do is attach those fabulous Pom Poms for ears!!!

Or even just one for a tuft of hair!!

And there you have it. Hope you have enjoyed this one. Please give me a shout if you’re unsure of anything!!

Happy hooking everyone!!

🌈Xx

 

 

(Free pattern designed and brought to you by PipsRainbow. Thank you for not copying or recreating it. ☺️Xx)

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Year of the Stitches Week 46 – Treble Crosses

Treble Crosses Stitch

Well hello my lovelies! I hope you have all had lovely weekends!! We have had a rather activity weekend, so I think these two have earnt a movie night. They seem to be enjoying a double whammy of blanket yumminess!!! Surely you can’t have enough snuggly blankets around you can you?!?! The back one is a granny square blanket that I made for my daughter a few years ago!! It’s a firm favourite in our house.

So this weekend we have managed two big walks. The Long Mynd on Saturday and Thorpe Cloud today. It was so nice to get out and about in the fresh air. Unfortunately as you can see, we didn’t have the best of weather yesterday. It was like we were walking in the clouds. I don’t think it dampened our spirits though.

But by the end of the walk, it was clear blue skies and bright sunshine. The walkers seem to appear out of the woods at that point! My old faithfuls are still going strong!!

I think we were the only crazy ones that were out early in the morning. Just to give you an idea, we had got up, cooked and ate a big breakfast, driven to the Long Mynd (over an hour away,) walked up and around the The Mynd (9km to be precise) and then managed a yummy pub lunch by 1pm. So I reckon that’s pretty good going!! Either that or it’s just usual life with a little one that needs to sleep early afternoon!! Bless him. I know it’s not forever, so we don’t mind arranging our day around him!! And definitely don’t want his naps to end just yet!! Ekk!!

We have definitely had an active weekend – so today  we ended scrambling up Thorpe Cloud!! And we had the amazing weather that we had hoped for!! Wow!! We were so lucky!!! Just incredible!

If you are ever in the area, it is definitely worth a trip!! There’s the famous stepping stones that you can walk to, but then the adventurous ones go up Thorpe Cloud! It’s a bit of a scramble at the beginning and definitely not easy for my poor husband with a back pack and a little boy who is getting bigger by the minute on his back!! Totally worth it though!! The view was amazing! My daughter kept saying how easy it was and why were we taking so long!! Bless her!! She has so much energy!!

This walk had definitely earnt a mulled cider at the Old Dog Inn afterwards!!! Dare I say it – felt like the beginning of chrimbo!!

We ended up in Ashbourne afterwards and had a lovely cuppa in the F’coffee cafe!! My son even had a babychino, but it’s wasn’t any normal one!! He absolutely adored it!! Mega coffee bar if you are ever in Ashbourne!!! Hmm, just looking at this photo – do you think he likes diggers?? Haha! Bless him!!

Well we have definitely had a lovely weekend making lots of family memories!! Happy days!!

So onto a spot of crocheting. So this weekend I have published my Simply Snuggly Hat pattern. Now this is a great pattern for any of you who are new to crocheting and want to make something easy, but also for crochet addicts like me who love giving crocheted pressies to everyone. This one uses a  back loop double crochet stitch, which is extremely easy to make up. So no worries there!!

My other Weekend Hat pattern, will be ready to go mid week I think. This will be my second hat pattern and once again it is extremely easy to make up. It uses the back loop treble stitch, so it’s a lot quicker than the back loop double crochet hat, but obviously gives you a different look.

This is one I am making for my Mum. She adores this cerise colour, so hope she will like it. The wool has been hand dyed by the wonderful Easy Knitter!! Hoping to find a matching pom pom for it!!! Definitely needs a pom pom, doesn’t it!!

So onto the blanket and this weeks instalment of Year of the Stitches CAL. So this week I have chosen a lovely stitch called the Treble Crosses Stitch. It’s a pretty cool stitch. It’s kind of like a spike stitch in the sense that you work trebles in the row below, but crossed!! Hope you like. It’s good fun to work up. Just watch your tension. Make sure your tension is quite loose, as otherwise it will pull the stitch down!! Hope you like it!

Supplies –

This week I have used a 100% Double Knit wool from the Cascade range!! It’s ever so nice to work with!! As always I have used about 30g of yarn. Remember you can use any double knit yarn you like. Don’t forget your 4mm hook, scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle.

Stitches – 

Chain (ch) – To make a chain stitch, make a slip knot on your hook and then place the yarn over your hook and pull through the loop. Repeat this action to make a row of stitches.

Treble Crochet (tr) – Yarn over your hook and insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have three loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then yarn over your hook again and pull through the last 2 loops.

Ok so here we go …

1 – Attach your new yarn onto the wrong side of your blanket and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the same stitch. Then work 1tr in each stitch across the row. (200)

2 – Now turn your work and chain 3. Then work 1tr in the same stitch. Now miss 2 stitches and then work 1tr in the base of the next stitch. So work the tr stitch around the back of the tr post. Can you see where the arrow is pointing.

So to do this, yarn over your hook and insert your hook around the back of the stitch like so.

Then yarn over and pull back through and up to same height of the row. You should have 3 loops on your hook.

Now finish the stitch by placing the yarn over your hook and pulling through the first 2 loops and then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops to complete the stitch.

Now work 1tr in the 2nd of the missed stitches. This is where the arrow is pointing.

Ok so now you are ready to work 1tr around the base of the first tr stitch that you missed. So we are going to put the yarn over your hook and insert your hook where the arrow is pointing.

So place it around the back of the stitch like last time.

Now yarn over your hook and pull through. This will give you 3 loops on your hook.

Then finish the stitch by yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops and then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops.

Now work 1tr in the next 3 stitches. The first stitch needs to go where the arrow is pointing. You need to make sure this is the stitch that hasn’t had a treble stitch underneath. If you start in this one you will end up with a higher stitch count!

Son once you have worked the 3 trebles you have finished the treble cross stitch.

Ok so now it’s time to repeat. So *miss next 2 tr stitches, work 1tr in the base of the next tr stitch.

Then work 1tr in the second of the missed tr stitches.

Then 1tr in the base of the first tr stitch missed.

Now work 1tr in the next 3 stitches.*

Repeat this ** across the row. (200)

3 – Now turn your work and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the same stitch and then 1tr in each stitch across the row.

End with 1tr in the last stitch and then fasten off and sew in your ends.  (200)

And there we have the wonderful Treble Crosses Stitch. Hope you like it. Still a bit shocked that we are on week 46 of Year of the Stitches!! I really hope you are enjoying this CAL as much as I am!! Think it’s going to be a magnificent blanket once it’s finished. Fingers crossed!!

Anyways, happy hooking everyone!

🌈 Xx

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