Bundle of Beanies

My dear friend Edel is battling breast cancer right now.  While her prognosis is great since it was caught early, she's still going through chemo, and has lost her hair.  Add to that a record cold winter in Ireland, and she's got a cold noggin.  So I whipped up a few hats for her.  They were all made with the same free pattern, but I played with the hat size and hook size, depending on which yarn I was using.  All the supplies came from my stash, so it was a nice way to use up some of my favorite yarns leftover from other project. The pattern is very simple, and easy to adjust as needed. 

The Rainbow Beanie was made from Bernat Mosaic yarn (now sadly discontinued), sent to me by Craftster friend pinkleo ages ago.  I love how bright and cheerful the colors are.  I actually made a skinny, lacy rainbow scarf with it back in 2012, and always knew it was destined to go to someone special.  When I whipped up the hat, I knew I had found the friend the scarf was always intended for.

The Prism Beanie was made with Caron Simply Soft in black, and Lion Brand Shawl-in-a-Ball in Prism.  The Prism has an electric blue metallic thread in it, and sparkles subtly.  It was leftover from my Prism Virus Shawl, but was too thin for an actually warm hat, so I paired it with the relatively thin worsted simply soft yarn, to make one somewhat thick worsted.

The Sporty Sparkle Beanie was made from Caron Simply Soft Party in Platinum and Fuchsia, and Simply Soft in black. The Fuchsia was leftover from making a Pussyhat for  Craftster friend kittykill.  I had picked up the platinum at the same time, hoping to possibly do something with it to match kittykill's' hat, but never figured out exactly what I wanted to do with it, so it had been in my stash since.  I think it was meant to be there for this project.  The force is definitely strong with this hat, considering it's ass-kicking pussyhat origins.

Finally the Briar Rose Beanie  was inspired by the fact that I had one red rose leftover from my Briar Rose Scarf, made for itsmereba in the Craftster Fairytale Swap.  I used a darker green for the hat (Premier Everyday in Pine Green), and used the last bits of the Lion Brand Heartland in Joshua Tree that I used for the leaves and vine of the original scarf.

Briar Rose Scarf

I recently participated in the Fairytale Swap on Craftster.  My partner itsmereba mentioned that Briar Rose was one of her favorite fairy tales, and I got the idea of creating a scarf reminiscent of the rose vines that surround the castle in the story.  I wanted it to be something she could wear in the mild winter of TX, but that could also be displayed decoratively like a garland in the summer.  I searched around, certain that someone had created a pattern like I was dreaming of, and found the Belle Fleur Scarf by Michele Wilcox/Stitch Nation.  The roses are made from Bernat Satin in Bordeaux and Yarn Bee Soft Secrets in Rosebud, and the vine and leaves are Lion Brand Heartland in Joshua Tree.

I will warn that while the picture makes the scarf look simple, it was actually much more fiddly than I was expecting.  The vine and leaves are created with a foundation chain, then slip stitching all the way back down, making leaves along the way, then slip stitched again back up the other side, again making more leaves on the way.  While none of it was difficult per se, I find slip stitching in such a skinny area a bit tedious, especially when the yarn wants to turn around on itself.  The roses were just plain crazy.  I read the pattern, and tried to follow it, but it didn't make sense at all, so I checked other users comments on Ravelry, and discovered that most people didn't understand what the pattern wanted you to do.  After a lot of frogging and retrying, I did finally figure out the pattern as it was written, but I wasn't very impressed with the finished rose.  It wasn't as big and full as I'd like, so I dug around on Youtube until I found a tutorial I liked by simplydaisy, then altered her method a bit to make the roses just a pinch bigger by adding 6 more petals made from triple crochet stitches.  I've included my rose pattern below.

Rose Pattern (US Terms):
Leaving a long tail (about 10”), chain 54.

Row 1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook. Sc all the way across. (52 sc)

Row 2: Ch 1, turn. Skip next ch space, and trc into 3rd st. 4 trc in same space. (This makes 1 triple crochet shell.) Skip next ch space, sc in next space, skip next chain space, 5 trc in next space. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 6 triple crochet shells.

Skip next ch space, sl st in next space, 5 dc, sl st. (This is 1 double crochet shell.) Repeat double crochet shell 5 more times for a total of 6 dc shells.

5 hdc, sl st. (This is 1 half double crochet shell.) Repeat half double crochet shell 4 more times, for a total of 5 hdc shells.

5 sc, sl st. (This is 1 single crochet shell.) Repeat 2 more times, for a total of 3 sc shells. After slip stitching in last space, fasten off, and leave another long tail.

Working from the sc shell end, start twisting the work into a flower spiral. Use the long tails of thread to sew the petals in place.