projects!

This weekend I was feeling on the adventurous side and decided to pull out my crochet hook and give those cute owl hats a go... I learned to crochet when I was really young from my mom but just the basic stitch and only in squares and rectangles.  I love the crocheted washcloths so that is mostly what I use it for, but I figured I had the basics down so I could learn to do more advanced stuff and figure it out, right?!  I ended up buying a pattern off etsy and when I opened it up I couldn't believe what I had done, the pattern made NO sense, I had no idea what I was doing.  Now I'm more of a visual learner which I guess I forgot somewhere in all my excitement to crochet these cute hats.  With the pattern there is nothing visual about it plus all the weird lingo for the stitches I was so confused.  But since I had already purchased the pattern I was determined to figure it out! Thank goodness for google and you tube!  I bought my pattern from here, she has darling stuff and you can buy the patterns or the hats already made but since I had no idea what the pattern meant I googled a lot of things.  I finally ended up at youtube... I typed in "crocheted owl hat" and found this video.  A lady in Australia is making an owl hat, it is different from how the patterns hat turned out but I figured I would take it.  She was a lot of help! I was able to combine the two resources and make a hat that I was pretty pleased with! After watching the video over and over I was finally able to semi- decipher what the pattern was saying to me and I got more successful as I made more hats! 

Here is my first attempt...

I was honestly surprised that it resembled a hat at all and I was pretty pleased with it although I knew I could do better- plus I needed a few more materials.  I didn't want to buy everything right off just in case I couldn't do it but after re watching the video and still trying to decipher the pattern this is what I ended up with...

After this I needed a little break from the owl hat and my brain was hurting from the pattern translating so again I went to youtube and the same Australian lady that did the owl hat had a cute "elf" like hat tutorial there are five parts to it so I'll link the first one up here and that video connects you to the rest of them.

The one on the left was my first one and I ended up adding the trim at the bottom myself without the tutorial's help! After that I did the one on the right and switched the yarn all by myself, pretty advanced ha!

Kevin has been studying for the GMAT to take in a couple of weeks, and since he's trying to take it before baby gets here he has been studying all day everyday he has off and during his rides out to work! I don't know how he does it! But he spent most of the weekend on the couch studying and I spent most of the weekend on the other couch crocheting.  We're pretty exciting at our house! 

Last night I finally finished the hat that I felt like was definitely my best and I decided to use Kevin as a model to see how they would fit on a person since I don't have a baby to try them on yet.  He was a good sport so here it is...!

They actually turned out to be pretty easy! If it hadn't have been for youtube I would still be staring at the crochet pattern wondering what the H to do but thanks to that I can pretty much understand the patterns and they're coming along much faster than they were initially. Although it was a little frustrating at first I am glad that I was able to learn so much because of it! Since I have a lot of time on my hands currently I will have to whip up a few more and keep them around for gifts!