Crochet Earwarmer

It's been starting to warm up a little, which has given me a false sense that I can leave the house sans hat and gloves.  No, no it isn't warm enough for that.  I thought I'd crochet something new to keep my ears warm since I keep misplacing all of my hats and earwarmers.  I have no idea where they keep running off to.  On a semi-related side story, in college I made my brother a hat and he ended up forgetting it in a bar one night.  A couple of weeks later on the quad I spotted a girl wearing it - who wears a clearly homemade hat they found in a bar?!

To make this earwarmer, I crocheted a long strip using a slip stitch that was ten stitches wide and twice the circumference of my head.  Then I folded it in half and used contrasting yarn to stitch around the edges.  I used the same technique to create the bow, and then crocheted a small loop to connect the two.  

Because of the stitches around the edges, you don't have to worry about this stretching out, so you can make it the actual size of your head.  

And of course I made it in lavender, because I've been all about the pastels lately.  Is it still cold where you live?




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Crochet Earwarmer and Infinity Scarf

One of the tricks you learn as a crochet addict is how to pawn off all of your creations on unsuspecting friends and family members.  Unless you have a particularly chilly neck, there's no way you could possibly need all of the scarves you end up making.

I usually choose to give away my creations as Christmas and birthday presents to give a purpose to my craft.  Ahem, hence those hats... This year, I was inspired by Mrs. Micawber's Ribbonberry Stitch and decided to make an infinity scarf and ear warmer for my soon to be sister-in-law.

This stitch looks complicated but it's actually really easy.  Compared to some of the other patterns I've attempted recently, it was incredibly fast to complete.  

For the scarf, I followed the ribbonberry pattern exactly, crocheting until it was a nice length and then using a slip stitch to connect the two ends.  For the ear warmer, I started with just two slip stitches, and added another stitch each row until it was sixteen stitches wide.  Then I followed the ribbonberry pattern, except leaving 2 slip stitches at the beginning and end of each row instead of 4 slip stitches.  

Once the ear warmer was long enough (I may or may not have used my own head to measure) I started decreasing one slip stitch each row until I was down to two stitches.  Then I chained on about 15 to make the loop.  I finished it off with a button from my button jar.  What, you don't have a button jar?  Does that make me the weird one or you?

Personally I love this stitch, it makes everything look much fancier than your basic crochet stitches but is still really easy to do.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a blanket to finish that I've been working on for, you know, the past eighteen months or so. Somehow it isn't even halfway done...

Awkward Wednesday: Christmas Hats

One September, several years ago, I saw a picture of this hat on Fred Flare, and thought "I bet I could make one of those myself.  Or five..."

And the dream of making embarrassing hats for my entire family to wear each Christmas was born.  

Since I started in September, I got a lot of weird looks crocheting these in Millennium Park on my lunch break.  Unfortunately I'm crazy and made up the pattern as I went, so there isn't a pattern on the books for this one.  I could probably figure it out if anyone is interested.

I already pulled out my hat this year and modeled it for the boyfriend (somehow he missed the experience last year), he couldn't look at me without giggling.   

My sister's husband actually proposed to her while she was wearing it last Christmas.  I think he decided to pop the question because she looked so adorably hilarious, am I right?

Does your family have any awkward Christmas traditions?

Grabbing Winter by the Crochet Hooks

Something about winter makes me want to cozy up under some blankets, turn on the tv, and crochet until my wrists hurt.  When summer comes along I always forget about this particular hobby (because who wants to be surrounded by balls of yarn when it's 90 degrees?!) but as soon as the temperatures start to drop I remember that, yes, I was in the middle of making a ten foot long blanket.  Seriously, I once made a blanket that was so big I could not fold it by myself.

I used to stick with fairly standard stitches - you know, the single crochet, the double crochet, maybe toss in some chevron for kicks.  But lately I've been feeling up for a bit more of a challenge.  Luckily, Pinterest has been throwing some great new patterns my way.  Here are a couple of my new favorites:

The Honeycomb

Ribbonberry

Starburst

Okay, so maybe that last pattern didn't have a name so I made one up.  I think Starburst is very appropriate.  

Have you accepted crochet into your life, and subsequently have many scarves you need to pawn off on unsuspecting friends and family members?  Do you have any favorite patterns to share?