Crocheted hat and other stuff because it's Five on Friday!

Hey it's FRIDAY!!!!  YAY!!!!! 

Time for Five on Friday with Amy.

ONE - I made a hat!

I've made a lot of hats but never one of these.

For the last three years at Christmas my brother has  mentioned he wants one of those hats that I had back when we were little with the long tails on it.  I decided this year I was going to try to find a pattern.  And I don't have any pictures of the progress but, the pattern can be found on Two Little C's Blog.  Click here if you want to go to the pattern. 

 I did make a few changes.  For one, I always crochet my hats too loosely and have to make a few decrease rows to tighten them up.  In this pattern that was fine because my brother is tall, so it just made the hat longer.  Then I decided to tighten it up a bit more, by changing the band.

The pattern calls for front post back post for a few rows at the end.

I did all front post.  That seems to tighten them up a bit more.

You can see the difference in this picture.  Doing this does change the inside of the hat, but it works out OK.  He can actually roll the band up if he wants to.

So here is the finished project before the pom pom.  Another thing I changed was I didn't make stripes.  I thought he might prefer plain.

TWO

Pom Pom making

I decided to get my pom pom maker out, rather than use the old cardboard method.  I actually watched a video on you tube to make sure I was using it correctly.  It comes in four pieces.  You can see two of them below.  You put the two halves together and wrap yarn around each half.

Like this...

Then you snap those two halves together to form a circle, and start cutting through the channel provided with the pom pom maker.

Cut all the way around.  I know, it's a bit intimidating because you have all of these loose threads just hanging, but it will be ok.  It takes a lot of yarn to make one of these.  You want to try to keep count of how many times you wrap each side, because you want the pom pom to be even.  I sort of lost count but it was somewhere around 200 or more, on each side!

(and I ended up going through a little more than one skein of yarn for this hat)

After you get the pom pom (pp) cut, make sure your pp maker does not come apart, you cut a long piece of yarn, wrap the yarn around (inside) the channel (where you  just cut the yarn) and tie a knot.  Make sure you get the yarn tightly around the loose strands because this piece of yarn holds the pp together.  I tied it once, then turned the pp over and tied it again on the other side, then double, or maybe triple tied it on that same side to make a tight knot.

After it's all secured with your knot, you start pulling the pp maker apart.  Gently...

Voila'!

I evened it up a bit.

Sew it on the end of the hat...

CAAAUUUTE!

Here is the finished project!

I think it turned out great and I can't wait to give it to him.  I love it!  I laughed when I put it on!  I don't think anyone in his family reads my blog which is why I went ahead and posted it.  I'm hoping to see him Sunday.

Thank you for the pattern Chassity, from Two Little C's  blogspot. 

THREE

We are supposed to get together this Sunday for our Dad's birthday, but there is an ice storm heading our way.  Praying for warmer temperatures everywhere!  Last I heard it is about a 1000 mile long ice storm which could do a lot of devastation to our country.

FOUR

I've been wanting to show you the carpet bag type purse my mom got me for Christmas.  She drew my name, and I found this at a First Friday event, at a booth at our local art center.  I told her she could get it for me for Christmas if she wanted to!

 I'm trying to decide if it's too big to carry as a purse/bag.  I'm a big bag person. 

Or do I want to use it for little crafty projects.  What do you think it was used for in it's original purpose?  It has a lot of pockets and zippers inside.  And it's in great shape.  My nephew's girlfriend gasped out loud when she saw me open it on Christmas day!  I'm the oddball in our family that likes stuff like this!

and FIVE...

because I don't really have a five, I'm showing you this adorable picture of my boy.  He is so stinkin' cute!

That's it.  Happy Friday!  I'm joining Amy with Five on Friday.  Don't forget to go to her blog and check out what others are up to and

 Have a great weekend

and please....

No ice storm...no ice storm...no ice storm..

(people are still cleaning up from the August tornadoes!)

Cindy