My Favourite Free Crochet Hat Patterns

I love a good crocheted winter hat pattern, here are some of my favourites.

What do you call a snug fitting pull on wooly winter hat in your part of the world? Earlier in the year we went to Canada and discovered that there they are called 'toques' or is it 'touques'? I am familiar with the US 'beanie' as that's what we call them here in the UK - unless they have a pom pom on top and then it's called a 'bobble hat'.
Whatever they are called, they are a cold weather essential and they are a lovely thing to knit or crochet. I prefer to crochet hats, anything round is much easier to crochet in my opinion, and with a fairly substantial yarn you can whip one up in an evening. 
I thought I'd share a few of my favourite crochet hat patterns, the ones I've actually tried out and had success with. 
I LOVE this puff stitch beanie pattern from The Wee House of Crochet.

It is perfect for someone who is a beginner, maybe someone who has only done granny squares up to know. It's a great chance to expand your stitch repertoire but it's still a simple pattern to follow.  I made mine in an grey Aran yarn I picked up from Aldi, but any worsted or aran weight would work. Lovely with a pom pom or without.

  Doing a rib effect with crochet is actually really easy. This cute Lolly-Poms Easy Ribbed Crochet Beanie from One Dog Woof is a great pattern to practice the technique. 

I made this in the same Aldi yarn but again any aran or worsted will work. 

As you can see, this is the hat I made the rainbow pom pom for. Find out how to make them (it's easy) here.
The last hat I've made in this grey aran yarn is this V Stitch Beanie from Over the Apple Tree. 

Mine looks a slightly different shape to the original pattern but I think that's just the way it's lying on the table. The flower pattern I used is this free one from Mollie Makes Magazine, it's one of my favourites.

This was another 'simple to follow' pattern and I love the little edging which was another new stitch for me to learn.  Another of my favourite free crochet hat patterns is this lovely plaid hat from Whistle and Ivy.

I made a version of this for myself last year and it became my go to for every cold day.

The pattern for this is for a worsted / aran weight too but I made mine using DK which is a little thinner and it turned out just fine. 
Have you got a fabulous free crochet hat pattern you'd like to share? Add it to the link up below. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Rainbow Pom Poms

Rainbow Pom Poms are a brilliant way to use up all the little bits of yarn left over from other projects.

This is easy and quick, let's get stuck straight in! You will need: Sharp Scissors and Yarn, wool whatever you call it you'll need some different bits and pieces in a few bright colours. 

This is what I pulled out of my stash. You don't need this much - there is enough here to make about 30 pom poms! Just use up scraps, it doesn't matter what weight the yarn is, if it's fluffy or textured, it all works just fine.

Cut an arm length of one of your yarns. Choose a strong acrylic one (one that doesn't snap when you really pull it) Double it up and lay it between your middle finger.

Now start wrapping your different coloured yarns. Do between 8 and 10 wraps of each then change (1). Just leave the ends dangling. Stop when it looks a bit like photo(2) The more you wrap the fatter the pom pom will be.

Pull the length that you left between your fingers together and knot (3). Pull it as tight as you can then slide the bundle off your fingers (4) Pull the knotted yarn really tight and knot again. Wrap it round the bundle a couple of times and knot again.

Holding the pom pom by the long lengths of yarn cut the loops on both side.

You should have something that looks like this, a bit messy but nearly there.

 

Now grab your sharp scissors and start to trim. Hold the pom pom over a bin to catch all the little bits.

Trim a bit, give it a shake, fluff it in your hands and them trim a bit more until you are happy with your lovely rainbow pom pom. 

I love making pom poms like this, I don't have a fancy plastic pom pom maker and this is SO much quicker than the old cardboard ring method. I know some people think it is wasteful because you trim away a load of yarn but it honestly doesn't seem too too wastful to me. Here is what ended up in my bin after 1 pom pom:

I suppose how big your pom pom ends up depends on how big your hand is, I feel my hand is pretty average grown up lady size and my finished pom poms are about 2.5" (6cm) in diameter.

I LOVE these rainbow pom poms, I'll show you tomorrow what I used this one for. I'll be sharing this project at these link parties

Chocolate Chip & Orange Porridge Oat Cookies

Mix, bake and cool slightly, these chocolate chip and orange flavour porridge oat cookies can be ready to eat from start to finish in about 30 minutes.

I don't know if a Terry's Chocolate Orange is a specifically British thing or if they are available worldwide but I do know in my family Christmas is not Christmas without a Chocolate Orange. "Don't tap it, Whack it" "One of my 5 a day"  and "It's not Terry's it's mine" are all common catch phrases linked to this most Christmassy of treats. So for me chocolate and orange just go together, especially at this time of year and I've been experimenting with a family favourite cookie recipe to give them a chocolate orange twist. You might notice I am calling these cookies too, not biscuits as I should do, being an English girl and all. They are quite cookie like though I think as they are slightly chewy inside.

Chocolate Chip & Orange Porridge Oat Cookies

Makes between 25 and 30 230g Baking Margarine or butter 230g caster sugar 2 eggs 2 tsps orange essence 300g SR flour 150g porridge oats Zest of 1 orange (optional but makes it more orangy) 100g plain chocolate chips 100g milk chocolate chips 100g chocolate for decoration * you can get an easy print version of this recipe with a conversion to cups too here.
Heat the oven to 180 c   350 f   gas 4
Beat the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. If you have a lovely food mixer use that (you lucky thing you!) or use an electric hand whisk or a wooden spoon. Beat in the eggs and orange essence. Stir in the flour, porridge oats, chocolate chips and zest if using. Mix until it forms a stiff dough and you can't see the flour anymore. Use a desert spoon to spoon out blobs of mixture and roll them lightly in your hands. Place them on the baking tray and press lightly with a fork to flatten them slightly.

These cookies don't really spread very much as they cook so whatever size/shape you make them now is pretty much how they will end up. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown, then cool on a cooling rack. Melt the remaining chocolate and drizzle over the cookies to finish.

Enjoy! I'll be sharing this recipe at some of these linkups.

Knitting Needle Case from a pillowcase

Make a case for all your knitting and crochet needles, hooks and accessories from an old pillowcase.

This post contains affiliate links, if you do decide to click through and make a purchase using these links the cost to you is the same but Sum of their Stories will be paid a small commission.
I have a confession, I find it really hard to walk past a Charity shop (a UK version of a Thrift store) without going in for just a 'quick look'. Last week I was sourcing fancy dress costume elements for a halloween party so I had a good excuse for going in and I fell across this set of 2 quilted pillowcases that were just too pretty to leave behind. (I did get the costumes sorted too) 

The patchwork is that printed 'fake' patchwork, but the tops were thick and quilted. The brownish border was a separate piece so I cut that away. The back was in 2 pieces, one big-one small, with ties. 

I decided to make a roll up case for knitting needles and crochet hooks with 3 rows of pockets, so there would be room for accessories as well. I used the front of the pillowcase as the main part, the back as 2 pockets and then needed to add in some white and blue fabric from my stash for the lining and the middle pocket. 

To make a Knitting needle case like this you will need:

Main case piece - 17" x 20" (44cm x 51cm)

Lining piece - 17" x 20" (44cm x 51cm)

Pocket 1 - 17" x 19" (44cm x 48.5cm)

Pocket 2 - 17" x 12" (44cm x 31cm)

Pocket 3 - 17" x 7.5" (44cm x 20cm)

Ribbon 39" (100 cm)

Thread

A Water-Erasable Fabric Marking Pen

All the pocket here are doubled over, this is because the fabric I had from the back of the pillowcase was very thin. You could make your pockets half the height and just turn a small hem.

Press each of the pocket pieces in half and then arrange then on the lining like this:

Hold the layers in place with a few pins and mark the pocket sections with an erasable pen. 

Working from right to left, I marked 3 sections 1.5" wide and then 12 more at 1" wide.

You can see them a little better in this close up. 

Stitch over the lines, going back a few stitches at the top end to make sure the stitches don't come undo when your case is in use.

When you get to the last 6 rows on the left side, pin back the top layer and just stitch through the 2 larger pocket layers for 2 rows.

Then replace the smallest pocket layer for the next row. Then pin it out of the way again for the last 2 rows. 

This will create some larger pockets on the bottom left, which are useful for tape measures, scissors etc. 

Next lay the pocket layered piece and the main piece right sides together. Fold the ribbon almost in half. That sounds a bit odd, fold it in half but unevenly, so one end is about 60cm and one is 40cm. Position the ribbon on the left side of the case, 7" (18cm) from the bottom with the long ends all inside.

Stitch all round the case using a half inch (1.5cm) seam allowance and leaving a 3" gap on the right edge. Be careful not to catch the ribbon in the seams.

Trim the corners and excess seam allowance and then turn right side out.

Press with the iron then top stitch all around to neaten and close the gap you'd left for turning. 
You can remove any remaining erasable fabric pens marks just by rubbing then lightly with a damp cloth. 

Now just fill the case with all your knitting and crochet bits and pieces, fold the top flap over, roll it all up safely and secure with the ribbon ties.

On reflection I'm not sure I need all 3 pocket layers, so next time I might play around with their depth and maybe only do two. I was guided by the sizes of the pillowcase back fabric on this occasion. The nice thing about making your own is that you can make it any size you like with whatever pockets you like. 

I'll be linking this project up with some of these link ups

Inspired by - Twinkle Star Glasses Case

Today I have another project for you, inspired by another amazing blogger. This time it's a super colourful glasses case totally inspired by the amazing Red Haired Amazona and her fabulous Twinkle Star Hand Mitts pattern. 

This post contains affiliate links, if you do decide to click through and make a purchase using these links the cost to you is the same but Sum of their Stories will be paid a small commission. Let me tell you the story..... Back in July some very pretty colourful crochet appeared on Instagram feed of Louise, The Red Haired Amazona (well, I say appeared, her whole feed is pretty and colourful, but this was especially so!) and 'huzzah!' in August Louise publish the free pattern for the most beautiful hand mitts she named Twinkle Star. 

I promptly made a pair (which I love and have given to our daughter as she loved them too) and as I was sewing it all up it struck me that they would be a great size for a glasses case.

To make one you will need:

Yarn - about 2oz in total of as many different colours as you like. I used 6 (pink, blue, purple, yellow, dark blue and grey) 4mm crochet hook (I think these are just THE BEST)
Fabric for lining 8.5" x 8" (22cm x 20cm) Matching thread A button
I'm not going to go into great detail about how to make the basic rectangle of crochet as you can find all that over on The Red Haired Amazona. Pop over here and follow the wonderful and VERY detailed how too (honestly I thought I did a lot of photos for a tutorial but I'm a photo lightweight in comparison!) 
You can see I mixed the pattern lines up a little for the glasses case. I only did stitches and pattern rows from the original hand mitts pattern, I just mixed them up and did whatever took my fancy in whatever colour came to hand.  This is the most brilliant stash buster project! Once my piece of crochet was approx 7" or 18cm I stopped. (it was 8" or 20cm wide) Please excuse these next few terrible photos, it was evening and I was excited to get this finished!

Ahhhh, look at all those ends to sew in!!!
I used all the ends to sew the side seam of the case up so I was sewing them in (aka tidying them up) at the same time. I found it easiest to do the larger bits first, the places where a few rows are the same colour.

Then where there was just one thin row I simple tied the ends and sewed them in, like this:

Sew the bottom up too.

Cut a piece of fabric just a little larger than you crochet has ended up.

Now stitch the side and along the bottom. I used a thread the same colour so I've drawn in some comedy sized stitches to show you where.

Trim the corner seam allowance as shown then slide the lining into the crocheted case.

Fold the top over neatly, tucking the raw edge inside and pin.

Then slip stitch all around the top to attach the lining to the crochet.

Sew a button on the front in the centre and then make a chain loop on the centre of the back. Join the yarn to the centre stitch, chain enough to go round the button fairly tightly (I did 10 chain) and then slip stitch back into the centre stitch. Sew the ends in. 

Ta dah! Finished. I think this is one of my favourite makes ever (and yes, I know I say that a lot!)

Out of interest, here are some photos of the Hand mitts that I made first, following the pattern from the Red Haired Amazona properly.

Aren't they pretty?

I made these mostly out of the left overs from the Rainbow Heart Bunting and Carnival Cushion I made ages ago with just a few other little left over bits thrown in.

Do you think you'll try The Red Haired Amazona's gorgeous pattern and make pretty hand mitts for someone this Christmas? Or adapt the idea and make a glasses case? OR you could do a smaller version as a phone case or a bigger one for an ipad .... or wouldn't it make the most lovely little purse, handbag, coaster, cushion...