The recent cold snap we’ve experienced in my part of the world reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write this post for weeks. I’ve been crocheting in earnest for well over a decade now making blankets, scarves, shawls, jumpers and a cardigan as well well as lots of little people. Despite that, I’d never made myself a hat. When it’s cold outside I always found myself reaching for the same shop-bought woolly hat I’d bought a long, long time ago. I decided that this winter it was time to put that right, and made not one, but two new hats!

I scoured my collection of pattern books and magazines and happened upon this lovely granny stripe hat from the Modern Granny Stitch Crochet book by Claudine Powley also known as Iron Lamb. I had been wanting to have a go at one of her beautiful granny jumpers but with magazine commissions and a knitted jumper in progress, I’d parked that idea for a while. There was nothing stopping me making a hat though – it would be a quick project, almost like a palette cleanser between my commissions.

Fortunately I have a decent stash of yarn these days thanks to a couple of Scheepjes boxes of smaller balls which I have acquired, so I rooted through them to find the right colours for a hat – I wanted something bright and colourful to cheer up a grey day spent standing on the football sidelines cheering my youngest and his team on. I hit on this bright cerise pink and dark turquoise along with the pale grey. The pattern was really clear and quick to make up. I’m really happy with how it turned out – at last I had an alternative to my old shop-bought number!

However, I found that hats are a bit like buses – you wait for ages for one to come along and then another one arrives in quick succession! Just as I was finishing off my Iron Lamb creation I saw a beautiful pattern release by Catherine of Catherine Crochets – the Down the Line Beanie.

In case you haven’t come across Catherine before (although I am sure you probably will have) she is known for her beautiful tapestry crochet blankets and accessories. Catherine was my guest on Making Stitches Podcast – you can find that episode here.

I had some beautiful hand dyed yarn in my stash which I bought a while back from the Yarn Whisperer (another of my podcast guests!). It’s called ‘4 of Wands’ and I just loved the rainbow effect it gives.

I had started using it in a knitted shawl project which, unfortunately for the shawl, was just too tricky for me so it was put in the naughty pile. I was feeling guilty that this lovely yarn was sitting unused, then I found the Down the Line Beanie pattern and I knew that this was the yarn for the job. The contrasting grey yarn was bought as a compliment colour to use in the tricky shawl project so I was ready to start as soon as I downloaded the pattern!

It was another really simple pattern to follow and despite appearing to be complicated – it was surprisingly easy. I really loved making it and just love the way the lines merge together as they reach the crown of the hat! Isn’t it pretty?

Then the huge decision – to pompom or not to pompom?

I hummed and hawed for a while, and finally decided it needed a pompom just to finish it off and to make full use of that gorgeous skein of hand dyed yarn – so thanks to a great freebie pompom maker from Simply Crochet magazine, I got winding and lo and behold, I had a pompom!

I’m so pleased with how my two new hats turned out – I now have a choice of styles for when I’m heading out for a cold damp morning or evening standing on the football sidelines!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about some of my latest crochet adventures. If you would like to keep up to date with all my news, please sign up for my newsletter using this link.

Until next time, take care and enjoy your crafting!

Lindsay x