Back To Basics~Homemade Happiness

{I am a woman on a mission. A mission to declutter our home and our lives. To make more and buy less. To find the things we truly love in life and hold onto them. A mission to get back to basics. The progress is slow as I work full time (at home) and have a husband and baby to care for. However, what I have accomplished has made a great improvement in our lives.}

Pumpkin Hat~

Last week, I decided that it was about time that I learn to crochet. I've been able to make a chain since I was nine years old, but for some reason I never went any further with it. I already had some yarn from other various projects so all I needed was a hook and a book. On Saturday, I went to the mall and picked up (with some advice form a very sweet woman) The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet and a three pack of hooks.

They sat on my counter for two days. I would stare at them from across the kitchen table. The book taunted me with its 272 pages and more than 400 large format color photos. The hooks cried out for me to hold them and use them for something great. I stubbornly rejected their calls and continued to go about my day to day business. Finally, Monday afternoon, the house was clean, the laudry done, the children were napping, and the internet was being slow. I picked up the hook and yarn and made a chain. The going was slow. After all, it had been years since my last crochet. But the rhytmic dance between my hands, the hook, and the yarn soon returned. At last, I was back to where I had started 11 years ago.

Now to move forward. I slowly opened the book and glanced through its glossy pages. Single, half double, cross, shell, bobble, popcorn, and picot to name only a few stiches. Needlesss to say, I was a bit overwelmed. My first few attempts were utter failures, then they got a bit better, and finally they were satasfactory. I decided to work in rounds because my rows weren't very straight and I thought rounds would give my some good practice. By that evening I had made my first hat. If you can count one that fits on an acorn. The next hat, though it did somewhat fit on Bunny's head, was mis-shapen and uneven. 

The latest hat I set out to make was a pumpkin hat for Fall/ Halloween. I didn't use a pattern, I just knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to look. I started with green/camo (for the stem) at the top, and worked my way around and around, then switched to orange. Round and round I went. Single, single, single, single... Then I doubled up on my loops to make it bigger on one round. Then single, single, single, single... Double triple, double triple. Then single every other loop to make it smaller (to fit around Bunny's head). This process took almost two days. Then I wrapped the stem in green/camo to make it more realistic. Last I added a leaf and a twisted chain (for a vine).

I love Bunny's new hat and I didn't even have to pay for it (which makes me love it even more)!

P.S. The hat is just a bit big on her so I am hoping that it will fit next year too

(I might have to take out the last tight round).

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