1. Mock bobbles made with treble stitches.

2. Aran-weight yarn that works up at 12 sc = 4 in./10 cm.

​3. Dollar Tree yarn (the pink hat).

4. Red Heart Bitty Stripes (here in Rainbow).

5. My new crochet pattern slated for release next month.

Brrrrr!  February is a great month to make one or two new chill-chasing hats!  And it's also a great time for my big birthday sale!

All patterns and collections in both my Etsy shop and my Ravelry store are 40 percent off, no coupon code needed, through the end of the month.

Lately, I've been wishing that the yarn for my stitch samples and technique tutorials was less . . . well, fuzzy.

I want my stitch and technique photos to be sharp and easy to read so that people can see exactly what's happening with the yarn and the hook.

Some years back, I had great success with some craft plastic tubing I got at Joann's.  I used it for my half-double crochet stitch illustrations, and I still use those photos in my patterns.  They're great.  Unfortunately, the plastic tubing stank so much I had to store it in the garage.  I've been looking for a less odorous alternative.

I found the answer on the cover of a recently published book, "Crochet Secrets from the Knotty Boss" (highly recommend!).  On the cover and inside are stitch samples made with tubing yarn.  Genius!

A lot of tubing yarn is super bulky weight for home dec items such as baskets.  However, Bernat makes a lighter version, which arrived here yesterday.  Bernat Maker.  It's a bulky-weight (#5) cotton tube with nylon filling.  It might even be good for hats with great stitch definition!
 

Recently, a customer asked if she could make the Snazzy hat -- seen on the right in bright red -- in super chunky yarn.  Well . . . no.  The gauge is for chunky yarn or two strands of worsted.

However, she inspired me to design a Snazzy-style hat in a thicker yarn.  Thus was born -- ta da! -- Super Snazzy, the hat on the left.  

Super Snazzy, as you'll see in this video, offers you all the styling possibilities as the original Snazzy. Valerie Tutson, right, and Ellen Sawyer, left, both of Providence, try out all the ways you can wear the hats.

The new pattern is available in my Etsy and Ravelry shops.  

  

Here's the beanie I crocheted for Kris Craig, the photographer who last week captured the exact images I wanted in a fun photo session in Memorial Park, Providence.  

It's made in the merino yarn mentioned in a previous post -- K+ C Superwash Wool Luxe in Lapis Azuli.  Gorgeous!  The specs are 215 yd./100 g, machine wash, dry flat.  Made in Turkey.

The pattern is The Not-So-Chunky Guy beanie in DK yarn, available on Etsy, here, and on Ravelry, here.  This pattern is a spin-off of my Chunky Guy beanie pattern, which has always been my best-seller.  However, lately, Not-So-Chunky Guy has been giving Chunky Guy a run for his money!

Arriving soon on Etsy and Ravelry is my new crochet beanie pattern, Unnamed.  (Just kidding, it will have a name.)

(UPDATE 1/9/2025: It's called The Friendship Beanie., and it's now available in my Etsy and Ravelry shops.)

Ellen Sawyer (lime hat) and Valerie Tutson (fuchsia hat), both of Providence, braved a chilly autumn morning to model the hats.

The hat can be made classic beanie length or slouchy style, and it's reversible.  Quick to make in chunky yarn (or 2 strands of worsted), both versions can be worn with the brim turned up -- which turns the beanie into a fisherman's cap and the slouchy into a beanie.  Fun to make, wear and gift!

I recently discovered some new gems in Joann's K + C (Knit and Crochet) yarn lineup.

The one pictured above is Chromatic Print in the Dusky Twilight colorway.  I've been experimenting with different crochet stitches, and I've frogged it three times.  It still looks great.  I need to find a stitch pattern that's worthy of this gorgeous yarn!  Perhaps a simple knit in stockinette to let the yarn shine?

Chromatic Print is a roving-style, super bulky yarn in 100 percent merino wool.  This is a VERY big ball of yarn -- 9 inches across -- with 118 yards in 150 grams.

And I've almost finished a Not-So-Chunky Guy beanie in K + C Superwash Wool Luxe, another roving-style yarn of 100 percent merino wool.  It very much resembles one of my favorite yarns, Malabrigo Worsted.  I'll post a beanie photo soon-ish.

Last week, a customer on Etsy messaged me with a couple of questions about my Shorty B pattern.  It's my only kufi pattern, and he wanted to know if it works with worsted yarn (yes!) and if there are different styles included (no, just the one shown in the photos).

I let him know that you can use practically any regular beanie pattern to make a kufi.  Just end the hat at about 6 inches (some people prefer 5 or 5 1/2 inches) and finish with single crochet to stabilize the bottom edge.

The same goes for the popular docker hat or fisherman beanie (the ear-baring Jacques Cousteau-style hat).  To create one, you could make a regular beanie (about 8 or 8 1/2 inches from the center) and turn up the brim about 2 inches.  Voilà! A sea-worthy cap!

I let my customer know that I appreciated his questions about kufis (he ended up buying a regular beanie pattern and making his kufi from it), and that I would share the kufi info on my blog.

Just doing my bit in getting the kufi love out there!  Such a flattering style of hat!

Need a basic, easy-to-make, easy-to-wear beanie?

The Boring Bloke Beanie to the rescue!

It's a crochet pattern for a classic beanie made with DK-weight yarn.  (Lighter weight and thus perfect for stuffing into a coat pocket and taking it out when needed.)

I got the idea for the pattern name when I read an article on the annual Beanie Festival in Alice Springs, Australia, where you can buy everything from elaborate sculptural hat masterpieces to a "boring bloke's beanie."

Even if you're not a bloke, sometimes a minimalist hat is the perfect choice.

Just released, the pattern is now available in my Ravelry store here, and in my Etsy shop here.

Recently I ordered yarn from Wool Warehouse, which is in the U.K.  I got this giant ball of wool-blend tweed in the colorway Scree.  

This sample for my just-released Bobblelini pattern barely made a dent in the as-big-as-your-head 400-gram ball. (I have 347 grams of yarn left.)

Since I'm primarily a hatmaker, I don't really need 
huge yardage of a specific yarn.  I tend to get only hat quantities of a yarn, 1 or 2 skeins.  Variety over volume.

However, there's something to be said for a big ball of yarn!  For instance, I wouldn't hesitate to make a
l-o-n-g roll-up brim on a hat, confident that I won't run out of yarn before I finish.  How comforting to know that there will always -- always! -- be enough yarn to make a pom-pom, and not a skimpy one at that.

And, when you're using a giant ball of yarn, you're never playing yarn chicken, worrying about running out of yarn before you run out of rows.  A very good thing.

Here are the yarn specs: Wendy with Wool Aran Tweed is 20 percent wool, 77 percent acrylic and 3 percent viscose.  It's lovely, tweedy and soft -- plus machine washable and dryable.

​P.S. My Bobblelini pattern is also available on Etsy here.  The link near the top is for my Ravelry store.