Chemotherapy means hair loss, so one actual use for crocheted caps is a cover-up.  I made one for an autumn, who decided against it and another yet to be presented.

Summer time, so lighter hats called for (if any, of course)

We all make mistakes, but some turn out interesting.  I am not sure how I came to turn a hat around at a join and crochet a row backwards.  But I like the effect and have done it deliberately several times now for a terraced effect,

In a neat yarn shop in Monterey (name long lost, alas) I got two great things: the irl of Ravelry, the source for all things yarny and a view of a couple of baskets crocheted with two strands.  I went home and tried that and, while mine didn't stand up as well (loose stitches? lighter yarn? bad proportions?), I liked the look and tried a couple of hats that way.

Goodness, it's been a long time since I did anything here.  But I have kept on hookin' and this seems to be a time to catch up a bit.  For the most part, I have been into hats, giving many away as presents (cheap I am, since I have been using mostly left over yarns and do the work to keep from fiddling and driving wife 3 crazy.  So here are some hats at a Christmas party (not all ended up with the wearers)

Christmas presents.

A sister-in-law (I have three this time) gave me four skeins of a really nice yarn, a pleasant change from the leftovers I have been working with,  The wrappers on the skeins had instructions for an afghan, so I thought "Why not?". Well, one reason not was that it involved counting, something I don't do well (see scarves), but since it was all in a circles, a minor miscount would not be a disaster, I thought.  The scheme was to put two dcs in each of the loops in the initial chain, then alternate one and two for the next row, then two ones and a two, and so on.  I didn't get enough yarn to finish all forty rows (thirty nine ones and a two around the last row),  But  even with what I have, it is clear that that the formula for making a round object (who ever heard of a round afghan in the first place?) was not quite right.  There soon were bunches rising up all around the circle.

 When it is folded in half, the ends go half way up the other half circle. 

I don't know how to deal with this.  I've tried alternating expanding rows with rows of dc all around, but this seems to have the opposite effect of making the circle start to turn in on itself, like I was making a hat (where I have had this excess material problem before, but where it doesn't generally matter once the thing is on a head),  Help!

Three hats

Doing hexes, even automatically, gets boring, even while watching tv, so I went back to making hats (even went out and bought some yarn this time).  The results were a study in gauge and hook size, things that I have admittedly ignored in the past.  All three hats were made from the same instructions (left over from last hears church project) but using different size needles and (consequently?) different gauges (though I did not actually measure them). All were made with the same yarn (well, different colors): Red Heart Classic medium (4) worsted acrylic.  The hooks were E, G, and K.  The results were way too small, slightly small and way way too large, judging by fairly typical heads (mine and wife 3's).  So I guess I'll have to start attending to that gauge thing.

way large

like I said

smallish

way small