Sep 8, 2021

Up Mayo! Crochet Headband Free Pattern

I'm not a huge GAA fan but when there's an opportunity to crochet, then why not?

If you live in or come from Ireland, then you'll already know that each year, there is a Gaelic Football competition that includes every Irish county (from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), called the All-Ireland championship, and the winning team goes home with the Sam McGuire Cup.

This year's final takes place this Saturday and this year it is a particularly big event, as the Dublin team (who previously won the cup for 6 years in a row) were beaten by the Mayo team in the semi-final a few weeks ago, meaning that Mayo could be the winners for the first time in 70 years (yes 70, you read me right, it's all got to do with a curse which I won't go into, but you can read all about here).

So my partner being from the beautiful county of Mayo (not as beautiful as Galway thoughπŸ˜‰), this year we are all very excited about this All-Ireland GAA final, which is why I made this crochet Headband in the Mayo county flag colours: red and green.

Me "sporting" my Up Mayo! Headband

I'm sharing this here for free so you can use it to make your own headbands in your own county colours. Just not the Dublin colours, nor Tyrone (Ha Ha, just kiddingπŸ˜‰).

My head is practically child-sized, so this would probably fit anyone over 12 years old, up to women with a small to medium head (I would make it bigger for a man or a woman with a bigger head size).

Materials needed:
50gr Dk yarn, red colour,
50gr Dk yarn, green colour.
I used 100% acrylic yarn as this is what was in my stash but you can use whatever yarn you want, you may have to adjust the number of stitches if your yarn is less or more dense than mine or if you need a smaller or larger headband.
3.5 mm crochet hook (E4 in US sizes),
Tapestry needle,
Scissors.

Abbreviations:
Ch: chain;
Sl: slip stitch;
FHDC: foundation half double crochet US (foundation half treble crochet UK):
To make a row of FHDC, start with ch2, yarn over and insert your hook into the first chain stitch made, yarn over and pull up a loop, yarn over and pull up the 3 loops on the hook (1st FHDC made).
To make subsequent FHDCs, yarn over, insert your hook in the previous FHDC (it should look like a V), pull up a loop, yarn over and pull up the 3 loops on your hook.
HDC: half double crochet US (half treble crochet UK);
To make a HDC, yarn over, insert your hook in the next stitch, yarn over and pull up the 3 loops on your hook.
HHDC: Herringbone double crochet US (Herringbone treble crochet UK);
To make a HHDC, yarn over, insert your hook into the next stitch, yarn over and pull up the first 2 loops on your hook, yarn over and pull up the remaining 2 stitches on your hook.    

Additional information:
1-In order to have smooth colour changes at the end of the colour changing rows, I decided to turn and work in rows from the end of row 2 instead of working in the round. 
2-The ch2 at the beginning of the rows do not count as stitches, the first stitch of each row is made into the same stitch as the base of ch2.
3-The slip stitch to join each row is made into the first hdc or hhdc of the previous row.
4- I haven't made a swatch (Gasp!) but still got it right first time: my tip is not to make the foundation row too tight (you can try using a larger hook for this row, and to measure as you go: once your foundation row fits around your head when reasonably stretched out (don't go overboard with stretching out, think of how it will be stretched when worn), then you have enough foundation stitches.

Instructions for the Up Mayo Headband:
Row 1: Using red yarn, make 70 FHDC, sl into the first foundation stitch to join,  making a closed circle, taking care not to twist your stitches.
Row 2: ch2, HHDC in each stitch around, sl into the first FHDC to join, turn.
Row 3: ch2, HDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HHDC from previous row to join, turn.
Change to green yarn.
Row 4: ch2, HHDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HDC from previous row to join, turn.
Row 5: ch2, HDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HHDC from previous row to join, turn.
Row 6: ch2, HHDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HDC from previous row to join, turn.
Row 7: ch2, HDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HHDC from previous row to join, turn.
Change to red yarn.
Row 8: ch2, HHDC in each stitch around, sl into the first hdc from previous row to join, turn.
Row 9: ch2, HDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HHDC from previous row to join, turn.
Row 10: ch2, HHDC in each stitch around, sl into the first HDC from previous row to join, turn.

VoilΓ ! You can now support your favourite team in Sophie's Knit Stuff style and I can go back to knitting my socks off!

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Aug 31, 2021

Besides Knitting

While I'm slowly working on publishing my new knitting pattern,I thought I might share some other things going on in my life, just so you know I am a human being and not completely obsessed with knitting (even though that remains to be provedπŸ˜‰)

I've been know to do a bit of baking: I don't particularly enjoy baking, it's mostly the eating part I love. I made my first slow-cooker banana cake recently: slow cooked cakes are the best, very difficult to burn πŸ˜‚.

My yummy banana cake

Speaking of baking, I managed to grow a healthy enough blueberry bush in my backyard and since I'm the only one who seems to want to eat them, I froze the few blueberries I picked so far this season and planning to make a batch of either blueberry muffins or blueberry tartlets (my mum made some once when I was a kid and they were delicious!).

As for gardening, I wouldn't call myself a keen gardener but I enjoy having pretty plants and edible things in my garden (the less maintenance the better). Here's a pretty picture of my hydrangea now in full bloom, it's not as pretty when the flowers die off:

Close -up of my beautiful hydrangea

But what I really love doing is knitting so I thought I'd share a sneak peak of my new hooded cowl:

Wriggles Hooded Cowl fresh off the blocking mat

I just couldn't help myself, could I?

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Aug 12, 2021

I Failed... But Not Giving Up

Today I'm sharing my latest knitting fail with you.

You see I had this grand idea of a new shawl design using a method I hadn't seen anywhere before, so I thought this could be my Million Dollar idea as well as my contribution to the Knitting World, I thought I had at last found the reason why I had been put onto this Earth... 

Well my search will go on for a little bit longer as I now know why nobody out there was using that great new-found knitting technique: it's because IT DOES NOT WORK!!!

This was going to look great

I was trying to make a triangle with increases made from the middle instead of the sides but as the shawl grew, it got increasingly curvy because the middle grew faster than the sides:
Excuse the poor drawing skills!

I was going to fix it later using short rows but then the sides started growing straight and if I kept going, my triangle would have become a very wonky triangle at the bottom with straight sides at the top:
I had to admit my failure and undo about 2 weeks worth of knitting.

I did get a new idea slowly crop into my head when I started to see that design wasn't going to work.

This might not work either but I'll try it anyway... How else am I going to find out?

My Million Dollar idea is still out there somewhere, I just know it πŸ˜‚. 

Jul 24, 2021

Knitting Weather (Not)

As we're just coming to the end of our mini-heatwave in Ireland, this is definitely not weather for knitting or crochet. Well, that hasn't really stopped me as I've been indulging myself in a CAL (Crochet Along): the Overcomer Shawl. You can read about it on A Knotty Habits Designs blog.

Blocking the Overcomer Shawl
With a shawl like this, I'm ready for anything this autumn, rain, hail, snow or frost!

Ready for the next cold snap

I loved making this shawl, I've learned some new stitches and this CAL taught me a little more about mixing various crochet stitches in order to get beautiful results, and judging by the comments from the other participants in this CAL, this one gets 5/5 😊.

Jul 7, 2021

Lace Hearts Fingerless Gloves Knitting Pattern Is Live!

I've finally managed to publish my latest knitting pattern 😁.

These yummy looking fingerless gloves are now live on EtsyRavelry and Lovecrafts.

My New Lace Hearts Fingerless Gloves

As always, they are in both English and French languages, so if you happen to buy them, you may want to only print the pages in the language you want to read the knitting pattern in as the PDF is 22 pages long. Both languages are on the same PDF as currently the Lovecrafts website only accepts 1 PDF per pattern.

Why so long? you may ask: that's because I have the pattern written in 3 different sizes this time (my previous mittens knitting patterns are only written in a Medium size as the medium size is designed to fit from teen to female adult size (that includes me;)

3 sizes: Small, Medium and Large

This time I decided that a child may want to wear these cute heart fingerless gloves, and also why not large adult as I know some women may have a larger hand than standard and also some men or trans-female might want to wear more feminine accessories that fit a larger size.

There was a lot of testing, knitting and frogging involved as usual before I was finally happy with the basic pattern, and then some more in order to get all 3 sizes right, but I'm hoping it was worth the extra effort as this means I should now have a basic knitting pattern template for more gloves and mitten designs.

The knitting pattern is written for to any DK yarn (light worsted no.3) but it looks and feels much better in merino wool; just don't forget to block your sample gauge as I find merino can stretch quite a bit after washing!

Close-up of the Hearts Design: I love this!

You can purchase the knitting pattern or my Hearts Fingerless Gloves from the following websites:
- Etsy;

I hope you enjoy knitting these hearts fingerless gloves as much as I do.

Be sure to follow me on my knitting journey while I'll be off thinking of more exciting patterns to share, but first I'll be taking a short break from knitting to do a bit of crochet πŸ˜‰.

Jun 4, 2021

Funky Crochet Hat

It may look like I've made this for Pride Month but this was actually a request from a friend of my son's:
He saw the navy hat I had made for my son and asked if I could make him the same in rainbow colors. 

I haven't seen the recipient wearing his colourful hat as my son did all the wheeling and dealing (I actually made it for free as I used wool that had been in my son's stash and that he was willing to give me for the cause πŸ˜…), but I've been told he loves his new hat, which goes to show there's a market for everything πŸ˜‚.

I have to mention my son is struggling mentally, partly due to the fact that he recently came out as a trans-male (born a girl but feeling he is a boy); luckily he is blessed with a good network of fun and supportive friends, but even then, some days are tougher than others 😒.

That's all for today, I am still working on my new knitting pattern for fingerless gloves, I've had to start from scratch more than once as I wasn't happy with the result, oh why did I have to be born such a perfectionist? πŸ˜‚


May 19, 2021

FO: Finished Knitted Summer Top

My summer top is now finished and I can't wait to get the weather to wear it ☺.

Knitted Summer Top Waiting for Warm Weather

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, especially since as usual I wasn't strictly following the exact knitting pattern: Since my gauge was smaller than the pattern instructions for the width only, I was following the instructions for a size larger than my own, but sticking to my own size for the height measurements. 

In my last post I explained how I was a bit tight on the turquoise yarn so I was thinking of maybe having to add a different colour stripe: well I chickened out as I was too close to finishing it by the time I ran out! Luckily I found a store that still had the same yarn (Amazon was going to charge me over £10.00 for shipping only, probably blaming Brexit for that even though I found it elsewhere still in the UK at a similar price for the yarn but only about £5.00 for shipping).

Of course now I have more leftover of my 4-ply bamboo cotton yarn, I now have a nearly full ball in 4 different colours so I'll try and find a stripy knitting or crochet top pattern, or maybe a few pairs of summer socks...πŸ˜”

Back to my top: when I put it on it feels great, I had never knitted with 4-ply bamboo cotton before (I usually knit using DK or worsted yarn), I am very happy with the drape and how it feels warm and cool at the same time. I could knit myself another one, maybe with short sleeves and stripes to use up more of that amazing bamboo cotton leftover yarn 😁.