First in 2014

A finished project already! Which is a good way to start the year, except I started the project on 1 January so it is not one of my WIPs. But the good news is that it is for charity and I used yarn in stash, so much so that one colour was completely used up. (Although I didn't feel that I used enough of any one colour to count balls of yarn out of my stash.)

I had mentioned about wanting to knit for charity again and have worked a couple of sections on Odd Ball blankets and also another group on Ravelry that had welcomed me. Well with the start of a new year I thought I would get involved with this other group that makes things for Operation Gratitude. Each month they have a knitting and a crochet pattern suggestion and this month was hats and they chose patterns that used different colours so people could use stash. A crochet hat is a quick project and using oddments was even better, so I made a hat.

Here are a couple of photos of the finished item. The first model is a lampshade as it really shows the hat well and the second model is my husband as his head is a better shape than the lampshade's.



The pattern can be found here. it is an easy pattern but beginners may need some help as techniques are not explained. All my colours are Red Heart Soft Yarn, left over from various blankets, and I am very excited that I had just enough of the blue to work two rounds and none left over to hang on to. The recommended hook size for this yarn is 5.5mm, I used a 5mm but the hat would look just fine worked with the larger hook. I also added 3 rows of double crochet (American terms) and one row of single crochet to make the hat longer. I used the instructions for the woman's size and I did not think it would fit me but it was amazing how as it got longer the fit improved, a good lesson for any hats I make from the top down. (As an aside, a similar principle to making toe-up socks, the toe of the sock shouldn't be increased to fit completely across the toes of the foot otherwise it will be too big once you start the main part of the sock.)

Once I finished the hat, I wanted to start another as a gift, but sense prevailed as I have all these other projects to finish.

OK I lied, I cast on a different hat pattern as a gift to work on during the play offs.