Lil' Pumpkin Hat

I've made a new hat and I'm loving it.  Actually, there are very few hats that I make that I don't love.  That's why I get the pattern in the first place.  You can purchase the pattern here on Etsy.  This shop is great!  I get a lot of my patterns for hats and booties here.  Tara's patterns are super easy to follow and she has sales quite regularly.  I have also been a pattern tester for her.  When you are a pattern tester, you get the pattern for free!  Holla!  She calls for pattern testers on Facebook but you have to be fast.  Her Facebook page is Mamachee*crochet makes me happy.  Also, check out her website here.  She has free patterns and tutorials on her site.

Anyway, on to the hat at hand.  This pattern was a little different in that it had the stem to work with on top.  It took me a couple of times to get my counting right but I got it.  After that it was smooth sailing and worked up very quickly.  I made it while Benj was watching a couple of shows.  I opted not to put the little patches on this one.  I can still add them if I choose, so we'll see.  It does seem a little on the bigger side but I'm not always a good judge of sizing and I didn't have a baby around to try it on.  If you want one of these cute hats for your lil' pumpkin but don't know how to crochet, I will gladly make you one for $15.  I can make any size from newborn up to adults.  Leave a comment if you are interested and a way to get a hold of you if I don't have your contact info.  

Bobble Stitch Afghan

After way too long, I'm back in the blogging world.  I'm not promising for how long, but I'm here today.  I've actually been making lots of stuff and taking pictures, it's just the dang posting that's getting in the way.  The latest project that I finished today took me soooooo long to make that I had to celebrate by posting.  I'll catch up on the other stuff later.

This is just a simple crocheted baby afghan using single and double crochet with a bobble stitch thrown in.  You can find the pattern and tutorial here.  If you're not sure how to do a bobble stitch, the tutorial has a link to a "how to".  It is a very easy pattern but it just got a little tedious with the repetitiveness of it.  I tend to get bored rather quickly when working on an afghan, so maybe it's just me.

The only problem I ran into was totally my fault.  I had three skeins of the yarn the pattern called for already so I decided to go with those and add some extra colors.  I picked up 4 more colors, brought them home and started on the afghan.  But I decided that I didn't like my color choices and instead of doing 7 different colors, I would stick with 4.  Back to the store I went to exchange the unwanted colors - enter problem.  They didn't have one of the colors I was going to need.  I didn't worry about it too much until after like 3 more trips to the store, they still didn't have the color I was lacking.  After checking inventories online, the only store that had the color I needed was about a half an hour away where we don't really travel much.  BOOOOOO!  I finally made the trip, got the needed yarn and finished it up.  Let that be a lesson to everyone - make sure you have all the yarn you need BEFORE you start a project.  That's probably why it took me so long.  I lost steam with the yarn debacle and it took me a long while to get it back.

So here are the pictures.  I took a few so you could see how the front and back turned out differently when using a bobble stitch.  I do like how this turned out and I may make another one in the future, but for now I can't wait for the next two months to pass quickly so our little baby and I can cuddle under it.

front side of afghan with the bobbles

front and back side of the afghan

more front and back

close up of the back side of the afghan

close up of bobbles