Even More Hats

 I'm still slowly working my way through the top shelf of my wool cupboard - this is where I keep all the yarn that I've bought with the intention of making hats.

This lovely blue is another Katia yarn (I mentioned it in my last post) - I've used it before to make a plain hat but wasn't so happy with it this time. There wasn't anything wrong with the hat itself, just that it was looking very plain: so I made a toning flower from blue merino wool and am much happier!

I also made this pompom hat - and am so happy with how it turned out! I bought a pompom maker when we were last over in England but hadn't really used it til now.

 The wool for this one is the Tivoli yarn that a friend of my sisters gave me - I wasn't sure if it would be too chunky for hats but I really like it. I am confident that I will be making more pompom hats!!

...and feast your eyes on these! This is the Rowan Superfine Merino dk that I'd ordered (from Laughing Hens in the UK) for my latest order from Jaye - they will be five flower hats eventually.

So far I'm on the 4th hat and then will make the flowers afterwards - so stay tuned for an update with photos next time!

Yet More Hats

 I'm still working my way through my basket of 'hat' yarns that I'd pulled out of my cupboard a while ago. This cream one is the one I mentioned in my last post: made in a Katia yarn, it's a blend of wool, acrylic and alpaca. Someone on facebook is interested in it so I've 'reserved' it in my Etsy shop for her to check out...if she doesn't buy it then hopefully someone else will!

 This turquoise one is what I made after ripping out the popcorn/puff stitch mix up hat! It's made from Studio Donegal tweed wool - I bought 2 of the 2kg cones of the wool in this shade last year so I still have quite a bit to work my way through...

 These two hats (above and below) are both in Studio Donegal's tweed wool too: last year I used this slate grey for the mens' hats and had bought too much of it - I really like how this pair of hats turned out and like using the contrasting colour for the flowers on them both.

And this is one of the pair of hats I'd made with the King Cole Moorland aran - it's quite a simple looking hat really but I like the subtle colour combination.

Right now I'm using another Katia yarn, a lovely soft blue that has lots of different shades, hopefully I'll get that one finished tonight. I'm going to keep on making hats for a while yet...my lovely customer (and friend!) Jaye in the UK has asked me to make five hats for her! 

I've had to order the wool in - so watch this space! I know I've been trying not to order wool but it's different if it's something that's for a customer rather than me just randomly buying yarns...and I was very good and only bought what I needed rather than taking a peek at what else they were selling. It probably sounds a bit daft but I'm so happy that I was able to resist the temptation and just order what I needed.

More Hats

I've been true to my word and have been making more hats since I last wrote here - this red one is to replace the one I'd made in January for a lady in Northern Ireland; it'll probably be the last one I make in this colour as Wendy discontinued it ages ago. I did do a stock-up on the yarn when I found out, but now I only have the green shade left; it's a shame as it would be one of my favourites for making hats.

I finished this grey/white/black hat last night and am really happy with how it turned out - it's made from a yarn made by Katia. It isn't a brand I use that often but whenever I have used their yarns I've been quite pleased with them.

Right now I'm working on a hat in the cream yarn (see my last post and the photo of the group of yarns) - it's a different one from Katia and is turning out nice so far. It's 20% alpaca, which makes it super soft and warm too.

I've made two hats in the King Cole 'Moorland aran' (also see the photo) as I had two balls of that in my 'stock' - I've donated one of them as a raffle prize for a local fundraiser and the other one will go in my Etsy shop. I can't decide whether to put a flower on the side of it or not so I haven't taken any photos just yet.

I had started to make a puff stitch hat in the turquoise Studio Donegal tweed  but I hit a bit of a problem with it....when I wrote the pattern I never wrote down exactly how I made the 'puff stitch' so I tried again this time, but I think I made 'popcorn stitch' this time instead of puff...it was coming up too bulky and heavy so I had to rip it all out :(

It's a lesson to myself though, to WRITE THINGS DOWN!!!

I've just looked back through my posts on here and this is when I started working on that pattern click here so maybe with these photos I might be able to work out just what I did..at least I know now that popcorn stitch isn't a good substitute.

It's really frustrating to have got about 1/3 of the way through the hat, not sure if it was going to work out or not, and then to have to rip it all the way back to the beginning again. Sigh.

I'm going to carry on making hats for a while, once I've worked through the ones in my basket I'll see what I want to move on to next!