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I know it's early in the year but so far this is my favorite. It took me a while to figure it out and I still got one part wrong but I still love it. I found this scarf on Ravelry by searching for scarves that were originally published before 1970. The entry sent me to an Australian newspaper archive. You can see the pattern in that archive here. The article had the text written out so I didn't have to try to decipher the tiny print even if I did have to decipher the terms they use.  This pattern asks for:
Row two was hard to read and difficult for me to understand. "2nd row: Work first pattern in loop following the part of pattern, then work a pattern into each loop after each pattern, finishing first st of pattern into loop of last pattern." They use loop a lot to mean different things and I knew after the first section was done that it wouldn't give me that scalloped look when I got to the alternating color section. Fortunately for me, someone else on Ravelry made this scarf and I took a very close look at their version and figured out where I went I wrong. I was just doing the stitch pattern across all of the stitches and not doing the pattern in just one stitch or loop. Once I figured that out this went pretty quickly. Here's the my version. I ran out of the light blue yarn so I finished it off with a last row in gray.  Can you tell what my other mistake was? The two openings were supposed to be next to each other but again, the text was confusing. If I'd looked at the photo again I think I would have done it right but it still works the way it was intended to. Even though this was wool I decided not to block it. It's pretty evenly stitched already and I didn't want to stretch it out. The dense fabric makes it a little warmer.  Criteria:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Not really. If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes. Does it look like the photo (or illustration in this case)? Yes. Would someone wear this? Yes. Did I enjoy making it? Yes. That gives this one a 4 out of 5. Next week we'll head to 1980!
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Remember this booklet? It had a lot of hat patterns I tried and promptly ripped out. I thought I would give it another chance and try one of the scarf patterns I tried the one in the bottom left corner of the photo.  Style No 2490-231 has a marled look that they got by holding two strands of sport weight yarn together. It uses an I hook and gives a gauge of three sc = one inch. I didn't have enough sport weight yarn to make this but I did have bulky yarn so I tried that and matched the gauge with it. This has an interesting stitch pattern that it took me a few tries to understand. Once I got it though, I liked how it was turning out. I hated the yarn in everything else I tried with it but it looked pretty good in this pattern. Here's a close up of the stitch partway through and also where I had to stop.  I didn't even come close to having enough of the yarn and it was a clearance yarn so I knew there was no way I was going to find more. I ended up ripping it out so for now I'm not rating this one. It might show up again later though if I get enough sport weight yarn to try it their way.
Next week I have a completed scarf from 1937! The Heads to Toes booklet had two of my favorite hats; the Checkered Hat and the Striped Beret so thought I'd try to do one of the scarves from this booklet. I chose the scarf from the set that was a Peaked Hat and scarf. This is the scarf the solidified my "no big scarves" rule.  The pattern uses 12 ounces of worsted weight yarn for both the hat and the scarf and a size F hook. It has a gauge of 7 clusters = 3 inches and 7 rows = 3 inches. I did not get the gauge right. I had a skein of Caron Pound of Love that I thought would be good for this but it's very stiff yarn and I knew that using an F hook for a large scarf was going to make my hands very unhappy. I went up a hook size to a G hook and while it was easier on my hands the gauge was now totally off. I got 6 clusters = 3 inches and 9 rows to 3 inches. The stitch pattern has you pulling up a loop and I couldn't consistently pull it up high enough to make that gauge work. It's a scarf though and gauge shouldn't matter that much right? The pattern starts with chain 384 (oof) and then you do their clusters in every row, cutting the yarn at the end and going back to the first cluster of the row to start the next row. The ends don't get sewn in. You tie them off and mix them in with the fringe at the end. Their cluster was defined as; yarn over, draw up a 1/2 inch loop in last chain 1 space used, draw up 1/2 inch loop in next ch-1 space, yarn over and through 4 loops, chain 1. It ends with a row of single crochet on each long side and the fringe on the ends. I used 12 ounces of yarn on the scarf alone. My fringe is a little longer than theirs and I used a bigger hook so that may account for the difference but if you make both of these you may need more than 12 ounces. When it was done the sides were curling. This might be because my gauge is completely off. I thought washing it would help and while it made the scarf a lot softer it didn't really help the curling. It is really long and if you wind it around your neck the curling doesn't show that much.
I don't like this one but I'm not sure if it's user error or a pattern issue. I'm not sure I would have been able to get the gauge consistent even if I had used their hook size.
Criteria Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. If there is a gauge could I match it? No. Does it look like the photo? No. Would someone wear this? Yes. Did I enjoy making it? Not my favorite but it wasn't too bad since I went up a hook size. That's 3 out of 5. If I'd used the correct hook to get the gauge right, the last criteria would have been no and we would have still ended up with 3 out of 5 but I would have had sore hands. My 2023 blog theme is crochet for necks. This obviously means scarves but also I might do ties, necklaces or collars. If this category becomes a pain in the neck I may switch to something else partway through the year. I've been looking at vintage scarf/neck patterns and while I have a lot of them in my library many of them are patterns I don't want to make. Here are the types of things I'm ruling out (at least for now):
Rating the neck adornments will be a little harder than the hats. A scarf is more of a one size fits all sort of items so "does it fit?" won't be a criteria. Here are the things I'll try to use for ratings:
I have about 35-40 patterns I've marked as possibilities and that might be enough to get me through the year. The three I have queued up for January are from 1937, 1970 and 1977. Next week I'll have the 1970 pattern from a booklet I made some hats out of already.  A scarf made in all double crochet. I'm not going to make this one. There are 22 hats that I gave a rating of 4 or higher. Here they are starting with the ones that had a rating of four. Most of these were given to Neighborhood House in St. Paul or Ramsey County Social Services. If it went somewhere else, I put that in the list. Clicking on the photo should take you to the original blog post for that hat. Five hats got ratings of four:
Seven hats had ratings of 4.5:
And finally, here are the ten hats that all got a rating of five out of five:
One of the reasons I started making hats in general was that I don't really like them. They often crush my glasses against my ears or just look weird. Overall it was a pretty good year of making hats. I learned a lot about reading vintage patterns and ended up with two hats that I like! I made 38 hats in 2022. The patterns ranged from 1965-1986 and more than half of them had a rating of 4 or higher. This week I'll share the ones that were the worst and those that were sort of meh. Next week I'll share the best and tell you which ones I kept. I think I rated a little harsher as I went through the year so some of the ones that I did in the beginning might have better scores than I would give them now. Clicking on the photo will take you to the blog post for each of these. The Worst (ratings of 2.5 or below):
The "Not so bad" (rating of 3-3.5): There were seven hats that had a rating of 3 and two that had a rating of 3.5.
Next week will be the 22 hats that had a score of 4 or higher. The Clouds and Rainbows hat comes from the 1986 Winter Omnibook issue of Crochet World. This issue has a lot of very interesting patterns that I need to share before I show you the hat I made from the magazine. First we have a mouse that dispenses toilet paper while holding cheese. Kind of cute but is this sanitary? Is the mouse washable?  Next we have a nativity set. At first I thought Mary had blonde hair in the photo but after checking the pattern they skip giving her hair and give her a veil instead. Joseph has a dark beard but the way the photo is taken it looks a little like a skull and is giving the whole scene zombie vibes.  The Crochet World magazines had a lot of Barbie and Ken clothing in the 1980s and this is an excellent example of one. Ken obviously skis and must have his very own, fashionable ski suit.  Other patterns not pictured include;
And now the Clouds and Rainbows hat. I knew I wanted to make this the moment I saw it. I was so confused about how that would stay on and if it would really turn out like the photo.  This uses worsted weight yarn and an I hook. I used Lion Brand Basic Stitch which I think of as a lighter weight worsted. They give a gauge that I matched perfectly in the white part of the hat with the recommended hook. The size is given as Misses and there's a note; "This pattern is recommend for experienced crocheters. With a little help beginners can also work this pattern." The note is accurate but maybe not for the reasons you would normally think. The pattern and stitches aren't that hard but the directions assume you have experience crocheting and can read into the directions to get the parts they chose to leave out. The hat is done in the round and the white part is all half double crochets that you join at the end of each round. Here's where I think the beginner would have difficulty.  Round two (and throughout the pattern) misses the chain two to start each round or maybe they think you don't need that part and it will be fine. I did the chain two at the beginning of each round. It's nice that they give you a stitch count to make sure you're increasing the right amount. In fact, they're pretty clear about how to increase the rounds right up until round 16 where they tell you to increase by 12 stitches evenly instead of the nine you had been increasing. Round 17 is a round of shells, Round 18 is a color round that is mostly single crochet stitches. Round 19-22 it says to continue in pattern and while it's obvious to me that the "pattern" is round 17-18 that may not be obvious to a beginner. It's not that hard to write something like; repeat round 17 and 18 twice. Rounds 23-29 repeat the "pattern" while increasing the size of the shells. It ends with a pompon (I skipped the pom). This was fast to make but it doesn't fit.
I know you're saying, "What if you just folded the brim up?" Aside from the fact that it hides the rainbow part, it's still too big. Notice that I didn't sew that last end in. I'm going to rip it out. I did sew in the color ends so hopefully it's not too much work.  I expected this hat to be weird but didn't expect it to be so big. This gets zero stars since I'm ripping it out.
This is the last hat of the year! Next week I'll wrap up with a post on the best and worst hats of the year. This is a post about hats that didn't work. I was definitely in a mood when I pulled this booklet out and started figuring out what I wanted to make. I tried several patterns in this booklet and either they didn't work out well or I was bored with the pattern.  The booklet has 27 patterns or sets. Two are Tunisian crochet, and another 10 are regular crochet. I tried three of the regular crochet patterns. I had bulky yarn so I thought I'd try this one:  So boring. I think this would have been fine, but I'd already made hats similar to this and it seemed like it was going to be pretty boring. It's a rectangle that you seam up and then gather at the top. Yawn. On to the next pattern. This one seemed different than the other hats I've done and used bulky yarn and a K hook.  Maybe some day with the right yarn, but probably not. I started it and somewhere around round four things didn't quite line up. I probably could have figured it out but my patience was low that day and I realized that not only was the pattern frustrating but I also didn't like the yarn I was using for this project. I ripped it out. For my last try from the booklet, I thought I'd try this cute popcorn hat. I really thought this one would be ok but about a quarter of the through using an E hook with Red Heart Super Saver my hands said nope!  popcorn hell I didn't try any of the other seven crochet hats for various reasons. This first set are the hats that seemed like they would be really boring to make:
This second set had several different issues. I didn't have the yarn for the first one. I didn't love the braid on the second one. The third holds together two strands of sport weight yarn and I don't like doing that and I'm not sure I had enough yarn for this hat in that weight.
Last is the granny square hat. This didn't look like it fit quite right so I wasn't willing to risk the time, yarn and sewing ends in for it.  Next week I will have one last hat and then I'll start wrapping the year of the hat up and planning for next year.
This week's hat is dedicated to Corinna who suggested this pattern book. It has a section with "A Covey of Caps" that were excellent vintage options for this blog. I chose to do the Reversible Ski Hat because it seemed like it would be a great way to use up some scraps and I was intrigued by the reversible part.   From left to right; Peruvian-style Hat, Green Tyrolian Hat, Yellow Cloches Cap, Cowboy Hat, Reversible Ski Hat. This hat uses worsted weight and an E hook. An E hook with worsted weight yarn is typically what I would use for amigurumi so I expected this to turn out pretty dense and structured. This hat is done entirely in double crochet in the round with the rounds joined with a slip stitch. It has a chart to get the colors the way they look in the photo but I ignored that and just tried to use up my scraps.  Green, Blue, Brick Red, and multi colored yarn scraps used for this hat. Not pictured is the gold I added in partway through. The directions were pretty good right up to the assembly part. The photo below shows what you end up with when you finish the crocheting part of the hat.  I considered just folding one side up into the other one and then seam together around the short end. That's the easy way to do this. Their way is a little more complex and the only benefit to their version is that the hat would hold together a little bit better. Here are their instructions:  I was skeptical that this would work and I was partly right. I tested it by loosely doing the overcast seam and then "stuffing one side into the other" and it came out inside out. Maybe I just didn't do it right but it seemed like the only way to do it. Here's what I ended up doing: Turn the hat inside out and fold in half at the center line and do an overcast stitch along the side where your rows were joined.
Once it was seamed, I turned it inside out starting with the small end and ended up with the photo on the right:
I used a pom-pom maker and did each side in matching colors so it would match the hat. The pom-pom sticks out half way on each side. I sewed the small end together a little bit and then stuck the pom-pom in the opening and used the tie from the pom-pom to sew it together the rest of the way.  This hat stands up all on it's own! It's very structured. Getting that pom-pom in right was a little bit fiddly but I got it to work. This is two layers of worsted weight yarn crocheted with a fairly small hook for that weight. It's thick and can stand up all on it's own. It's so thick that I couldn't fold up the brim like the woman in the photo is wearing it without it getting weird.
I got it to work and it technically fits but I'm giving it a 3.5. This isn't a hat I would wear and the instructions could have been better for the assembly. The half pom inside the hat feels a little odd too. I'm sure this is warm but it gives off Who-ville vibes. Maybe that's appropriate for the season?
This is a great idea for a hat and with a few adjustments it might be more flexible. I think you could drop the yarn size down to sport, keep the E hook and get rid of the pom-pom. You'd have to do more stitches and rows to get the size right but you'd have a cozy reversible hat that should have a little more give in it. This week I have a striped beret from the Heads to Toes booklet. I don't really like pom-poms and I wasn't sure about the stripes but I had yarn that came close to the photo so thought I'd give it a try.  This hat uses worsted weight yarn and the pattern gives the amount for the hat and scarf together (4 ounces each of four colors) so I had to guess on the amounts for the hat. I figured that I'd need about an ounce of each color, maybe a little more on the cream stripes. It uses an H hook so I thought this would go fairly quickly and I was right. The directions are pretty well written, especially on the rows that have increases and decreases. It's worked top down, changing colors almost every row. There are a few sections where it tells you to increase the same way you were for the next two rows but it's basic circle increases so it wasn't hard to understand. This took me about two hours to make and it turned out much better than I expected. We were headed out to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum the next day so I sewed the ends in on the way there and then wore it that day. It was a beautiful fall day with temps in the 60s and the hat did a great job of keeping the wind from blowing my hair all over the place without being so warm I was sweating. I even got a compliment from the cashier in the café. I'm considering making a second one in a colors that match my fall jacket a little bit better and giving this one away. Maybe to someone who likes the Minnesota Wild since the colors sort of match those team colors.  Here it is on me at the Arb. The first photo is in the nut tree area and the second is by the grasses. This one definitely gets a 5 out of 5.
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