New project and a sort-of pattern

 I was knitting way before I learned to crochet. My third grade class was taught how to knit, and I started on a scarf. This scarf got put away, forgotten about, and re-found multiple times. It must have taken me at least five years or so to finish it. And, when I got to the end of the yarn that I had, it wasn't even scarf-length. Maybe a scarflette. Enough to wrap around my neck, but not much more than that.

I tried again a couple years later, knit a scarf or two, but couldn't be bothered to learn anything more than basic knit and purl stitches. And then, sometime in high school, a friend introduced me to the wonders of crochet. I fell instantly for it - I loved how easy it was to make something other than a rectangle. I still love the versatility of it. I make up most of my own patterns as I go, and it helps that crochet is so easy to undo a row or two of, and still know exactly where you are and not lose any stitches.

However, there are certain things that you can do in knitting, but not in crochet. For example, lately I've been infatuated with knit lace. It's just so beautiful and delicate, and there are so many beautiful options. I would love to be able to make things like that in addition to my crochet work. So, I've started knitting again. Nothing fancy, just a plain knit scarf to get my fingers used to the needles again.

Luckily, I've got this super fun multi-colored yarn to work with, and I'm using my larger gauge needles, so it's a very loose stitch. It ended up being way wider than I was expecting when I cast on, so it'll be one of those scarf/shawl/wrap things - the loose knit makes it lightweight so it'll scrunch up for a neck scarf. It's exciting to be back into knitting, and all my work with crochet has helped me to not make my stitches too snug (a major problem I had before). 

In other news, I've finished a new hat crocheted using a broomstick lace stitch. My first time doing that sort of thing, so my loops are all wonky, and I think they could have been larger to really get the proper effect, but overall it looks nice. I learned from this tutorial (also I love her blog - so many adorable animals!), but tweaked it a bit for my hat. Unless I interpreted it wrong, it sounds like she did one row of single crochet between the lace stitch, but I had to do two in order for it to be going the right direction.

So for me it ended up being:

*three rows of single crochet

*row of loops

*row of single crochet to make the lace stitch

*two rows of single crochet

*row of loops

etc..

Also I thoroughly intended on writing up a pattern for this one, but I have this horribly tendency to make things up as I go, and forget to write anything down. I know the rows that I did, but I fudged a lot of the increases until it seemed right. 

I did a series of increases in the rows from the beginning (top of the hat) to make a circle that continued to lay mostly flat. When it was big enough, I crocheted from there without any increases until I reached the point where I wanted to make the brim. I did a decreasing row there - probably decreasing about every third or fourth stitch, checking it at the end to make sure it wasn't too tight. The brim is rows of single crochet alternating with *front post dc, sc, sc* rows to make the fake ribbing. 

If I make this hat again (I hope to), then I'll hopefully be able to actually write a pattern for it. In the meantime, if you have any questions about my explanation here, I'd be happy to help.

This hat (made out of a lovely soft alpaca yarn), will be up for sale on my Etsy shop soon. Once it stops raining so I can actually go outside and take some nice, non-blurry photos!