Dreadlock Rasta hat - the pattern

A wee while ago, back in February in fact, I made a rasta style hat with dreadlocks.



I have been asked a few times for the pattern, but I made it out of my head as I went along, without the forsight of scribbling it down.

So, I took some time this week and looked it over carefully, fiddled with my hook a bit and a written pattern emerged.

Please be aware this has not been tested, so let me know if there are any mistakes and I will edit accordingly.

It is written in UK crochet terms, using a 4.5mm hook.

You will need:

• 100g Black DK yarn
• 50g Yellow DK yarn
• 50g Green DK yarn
• 50g Red DK yarn
• 4mm Crochet hook
• Wool sewing up needle

The pattern:

Start with the black yarn and make a magic ring. 

• CH 3 then work 14 TR's into the ring.  Pull the tail tight so the ring closes up. (15)
• CH3 then work a TR into the base of that chain.  Work 2 x TR's into each stitch around. SS to join  (30)

Change to green.

• CH 3,  then ** 2 x TR's into the next ONE. Work a TR into the next ONE stitch then repeat from ** SS to join  (45)
• CH 3, work a TR into the next ONE stitches, then ** 2 x TR's into the next ONE. Work a TR into the next TWO stitches then repeat from ** SS to join  (60)

Change to yellow.

• CH 3, work a TR into the next TWO stitches, then ** 2 x TR's into the next ONE. Work a TR into the next THREE stitches then repeat from ** SS to join  (75)
• CH 3, work a TR into the next THREE stitches, then ** 2 x TR's into the next ONE. Work a TR into the next FOUR stitches then repeat from ** SS to join  (90)

Change to red.

• Work two rounds straight (90)

Change to black.

• CH 3, work a TR into the next THREE stitches, then ** 2 x TR's into the next ONE. Work a TR into the next FOUR stitches then repeat from ** SS to join  (105)
• Work the next round straight (105)

Keeping the stripes going........

• Work two rounds straight in green (105)
• Work two rounds straight in yellow (105)
• Work two rounds straight in red (105)
• Work two rounds straight in black (105)
• Work two rounds straight in green (105)
• Work two rounds straight in yellow (105)
• Work two rounds straight in red (105)
• Work two rounds straight in black (105)

Continue with black.

• CH 3, work a TR into the next TWO stitches, then ** TR2tog (using the next two stitches). Work a TR into the next THREE stitches then repeat from ** SS to join  (84)

TR2tog = Treble two together.   Go as if to work a regular Treble stitch, but stop before you finish leaving two loops on the hook. Now go into the next stitch and do the same, again leaving two loops from the stitch on the hook, along with the loop from the last treble still on.  You will have three loops on your hook.  Wrap your yarn around and pull through all three.  This had made two trebles into one stitch.

• Work a row of DC to finish (84)

Dreadlocks.  (using black)

• CH 43.
• Work 2 x DC's into EACH chain across, turn.
• Work 2 DC's into each chain across.

Attach the dreadlocks to the rim of the hat, leaving a gap at the front where your face would go.

For a printable PDF version of this pattern, please visit:

www.soozintheshed.co.uk/rastahat.pdf

A last minute Crocheted Minion hat

I have already mentioned my daughters 21st birthday was a few weeks ago.  So, the Monday evening before her birthday, I was all prepared, pressies bought and wrapped, cake planned, restaurant booked.

Then laying in bed, I checked my email for one last time to find a crocheted Minion hat pattern.

I bounced out of bed shouting something about having to make her it RIGHT NOW - Hubby shouted at me to get back in, it was after midnight after all.  But at 7.30 am I was up and rooting through my yarn stash to find suitable yarns.  Really good job I didn't need to go yarn shopping as I just didn't have the time!

At 8.00am on the dot, I sat down with my TV planner to watch the previous evening's Celebrity Big Brother  (my guilty pleasure) and got to work.

At 8.30am I had this....

By 9.00am I had started to add the black line, and having finished Big Brother started to watch Long Lost Family.

By 9.30am I was back on the yellow.

By 10.00am I had pulled it all out  :(  It was just looking way too small.  I had also run out of things to watch so flicked onto some program about Border Control in Australia.   Ooooo, the things people try to sneak in.

By 10.30am, I was back to black.

By 11.00am I had built up the yellow again and added extra rows to make it bigger.  Still watching Border Control.

By 11.30am I had an ear flap.

By 12.00 noon I had two earflaps and an edging.

By 12.30pm I had plaits and an eye.

And by 1.00pm I had finished.  (I was also very bored of daytime TV and had a numb bum!!)

It's still on the small side in my opinion.  Let's call it 'snug', but she loved it and that's all that matters  :)

Time to update my Cork hat

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that last year I bought myself a cork sun-hat, and jazzed it up with a rim of crochet daisies.

Well, this year I decided they looked a bit tired and that it was time for a change.  So off came the daisies...  (aww, poor little flower heads, they look a bit sad all wrinkled and past their best)

I grabbed this remnant of yarn  (from the 'Drops" range)

And crocheted a very simple band to go all the way round.

Not sure how much I like it, but it will do until next year   :)

Crochet Unicorn Hat

When I saw this gorgeous Unicorn hat pop up on my newsfeed from Repeat Crafter Me, I just KNEW a certain someone would like it.  And sure enough, when I showed her the photo, she did a little hop on the spot, battered her eyelashes and that was that.

So we got to work.  Using Hayfields Bonus Chunky yarn in white, I started this at a very slow craft fair I was attending.   Make best use of the time, I thought to myself.

It was good to have the recipient with  me as I worked so I could check it was going to fit ok.

Then the horn, Marie didn't want the brown coloured horn as in the pattern, so we chose Sirdar Ella, a sparkly silver yarn instead.  Unicorns need to have a sparkly horn don't you think?

Then it was ear time, I made two, lost one, made another, found the lost one = three ears.

I only used two though  :)  (No rude comments at this stage please)

Now for the brightly coloured mane.

(still no rude comments please)

I decided at this stage that I had not cut the strands long enough, so went back and added another round.

Ta dah!

One Unicorn hat - and yes, she does wear it in public  :)

REVIEW - MyBoshi Hat Yarn & Pattern

Recently I received a package of yarns to review from DMC. I am slowly working through them, but this yarn excited me most. :)

MyBoshi.

I think it is because it is a yarn that you do something specific with - like make a hat.  Yeah, I know, you can make a hat with any yarn, but this one is a whole collection of everything you need to make your own designer hat.   You get patterns, yarns, hook and even a label to stick on when you are finished.  DMC kindly sent me three balls (see below) and a crochet booklet.

The yarn is 70% Acrylic and 30% Merino yarn.  It is soft, but it doesn't feel so soft as others - I have tried to find a good word to describe it and the only one I can come up with is 'fiberous'!  (actually, that was Hubsters word and I can't think of a better one)  However it lends itself perfectly to crocheting these hats.

Look at the gorgeous range of colours.

The booklet also have a very clear and concise step-by-step guide to learning to crochet, so ideal for beginners.

Ok, we will make this one I think :)

Now, the pattern states for you to do a colour change in the last SS  (slip stitch) of the row - personally, I don't like this as it throws the pattern formation out, can you see by the photo, it just doesn't look quite right.

So I used my own method of finishing off as usual but pulling the yarn through a stitch, only I pulled the whole ball through and left it attached, rather than cutting off and having to sew in loads of ends.  Looks a little better don't you think?

Makes a cute basket  :)

I made the large size, by accident I hasten to add as I couldn't quite work out how the instructions worked. It was a tad confusing as the colourscheme obviously got mixed up with sizes - anywhoooo I got there in the end.  It was a good job I made the large as the medium wouldn't have fitted at all, even the large was snug.

And, this, (below) was it finished apart from one final row.  It was just way too small, and when she moved it just popped off her head.

I added another two rows then the finishing row.  Much better, still very snug, but I could imagine it would be incredibly warm due to the thickness of the yarn.  It's the type of hat that would be perfect under a hood as it fits so neatly.

Personally I would have gone up a hook size, the pattern states to use 6mm, I would have used 6.5mm or even a 7mm.  I am quite tight on tension though so tend to use larger hooks where necessary.

The finished hat is cute, very warm, very thick, and took no time at all to make.   I am just sad I don't have a label to stick on it  :)  I might have to stick my Opus Moon tag on instead  :)


A few questions to myself then.
Did you like it?  I did actually, more than I expected to.  I liked the feel of the yarn and the finished product.  It is a little splitty, but not un-workably so, the bigger hook size I mentioned would aid in this matter.  It's so quick to work though, you can get a hat done easily in an evening - instant gratification.

Would you buy it?  Yes, it comes in at under £4.00 for a 50g ball, and I used about 75g in total on this hat - not a bad price.

Any bad points? None that I can think of about that yarn, but there are a few spelling errors in the pattern book and the pattern I used, although I worked it out in the end, might not be clear enough for a beginner.


Disclaimer:  I was sent this yarn (and others) by DMC to review, the points I make are wholly my own and I am not required or asked to give a good review, just an honest one.

Innocent Smoothie Hats

Innocent Smoothies have a campaign going at the moment, called The Big Knit.

It is basically where people knit or crochet little hats that will fit on top of their Innocent Smoothie bottles and send them in to them.

There are some free patterns on their website if you fancy having a wee go.  Each hat took me about 20 minutes to make and hardly any yarn at all.

When the bottles are sold, each one with a hat will raise 25p towards Age UK.

So, as I had to do a knitting demo in Hobbycraft this week (one hour each day) I thought, why not use the time to do something good.  So Hobbycraft have paid for the time for these little hats to be made - wasn't that nice of them?  :)

The first one is crocheted, the second two are knitted.

In total, 9 little hats will be making their way to this great campaign, I am guessing they won't be lonely judging by this photo.....

That's a lot of little hats!

Are you joining in?

Another Festival Beanie Slouch Hat

So, just last week I made a Festival Beanie Hat from a Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs pattern.

As it was for Marie, I had to make another one for Shona.

She wanted it made longer so it sat further down on her neckline, so I added a good few more rows, including more fluffy bits.  Everyone loves fluffy bits!

The beauty about it being longer is that you can wear it long....or puff it up on top of your head.  Either way looks good.  (But the puffed up version looks so much more fluffier!)

All they need now is a festival...

Which do you prefer?  Short or long?