Category: Slider Blog Posts

A Colorful Cactus Hat for Any Time of The Day

A Colorful Cactus Hat for Any Time of The Day

Posted on by Kayla

I love when inspiration for my next knitting project comes to me without too much effort on my end. Most recently, this occurred when I visited Saguaro National Park for the first time earlier this year. A cactus hat is the perfect knitting project inspired by the national park. Living in Colorado I am accustomed to seeing tall pine trees everywhere. However I was not prepared for the massive cactus that covered the national park! The cactus on the hills around Phoenix remind me of mountains after a forest fire; tall pillars of trunks left standing with no foliage. The scenery was impressive, a little eerie, and made me want to capture the beauty of the landscape in some way.

Cactus Hat Cast On

Shortly after returning home I was at our local library and happened to spot Knitting the National Parks by Nancy Bates. I took the eye catching book down from its display. Lo and behold there was a beautiful cactus hat inspired by Saguaro National Park! A huge selling point for the book is the way the hat is shown in two color schemes in the book. One is a daylight scene with green cactus and bright blue sky, and the other has shadowy cactus silhouettes against a colorful sunset sky. I am a fan of easy color work projects, like the Pac-Man hat and animal baby blanket mentioned here.

Two versions of the same cactus hat, sunset and daylight.

I cast on the green cactus hat first. I have a tendency to knit tightly, so I went up a needle size. The gauge provided is given in stitches per inch, but there was no guide on rounds per inch. While I matched the gauge, my first go around turned out on the larger side. It probably would have fit the Saguaro cactus! After realizing the hat was going to be too tall I tried to decrease quicker than in the pattern. That didn’t work either.

Revising the Cactus Crown

The first cactus hat was getting too tall, but a quick decrease caused puckering at the top.

The top of the hat puckered and didn’t look as attractive as I was imagining. Instead of facing the problem right away I cast on for the night time version. This time I used the needle size specified in the pattern. The hat was again looming large, so I skipped a few rows of the chart and made the cactus slightly shorter in stature. By the time I had bound off it was a great fit!

Upon returning to the green cactus I ripped back down to several rows before the decreases. I added a lifeline. It took two tries, but I was able to get the crown shaping to work well.

Finally the last step was to weave in the ends (of which there were several given the two colors per hat and several joined yarn balls along the way) and give them a quick water bath. I wet blocked the hats flat to even out all the stitches. It always makes such a difference even if a project doesn’t initially look like it needs a lot of blocking attention.

Two cactus hats soaking in water to prepare for a light wet blocking session.

I’ve already completed my next hat from the book, this time inspired from Carlsbad Cavern National Park. The winding cables bring a lot of texture to the fabric. It’s nice that there is a variety of techniques used in the hat patterns in Knitting National Parks.

Cables define the Carlsbad Caverns National Park hat.
Knitting the National Parks: Get Ready For the Ultimate Road Trip

Knitting the National Parks: Get Ready For the Ultimate Road Trip

Posted on by Kayla

What goes better together than a long road trip around some National Parks and coordinating car friendly knitting projects? Not much! Enter your guide to Knitting the National Parks, a book by Nancy Bates published in 2022. Within the 271 pages of beautiful beanies Nancy takes us across the country and shows us breathtaking landscapes and cleverly designed hats.

Photo features the cover of the Knitting the National Parks book. Four different photos are displayed on the cover, the top two are national parks and the bottom two are knitted hats.
Knitting the National Parks by Nancy Bates. The cover photos do a great job of pulling you in!

The first official national park (Yellowstone National Park) was designated by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. Since then, there have been 429 national parks dedicated to preserve nature and history for future generations. Knitting the National Parks celebrates 63 of these harmonious and unique spaces.

I first came across Knitting the National Parks after returning home from a trip to Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Upon seeing the book on display at my local library I was interested to find out if any of the large cactus I had just seen made an appearance. I was not disappointed! The 35th hat in the book takes inspiration from Saguaro National Park, with outlines of cactus rising from the brim of the colorwork beanie. That was enough for me to bring the book home! Afterward while looking through the patterns there are several other hats that are beautiful and interesting. They will make it on to my future project list! If you want to read some other book reviews check out my posts on Crochet Donut Buddies and Crochet Iconic Women.

The Best Stops Along the Way

The book contains high quality, glossy photos of each hat. The photographs in general do a nice job of capturing the main characteristics of the hat, not just capturing a pretty photo of a model wearing the hat. Most projects have at least 2 photos of the hat from different angles. The designs range from colorwork charts to cables and even a lace beanie. The majority of hats incorporate colorwork inspired from views found at each national park. My favorites include colorwork that mimics striations in rocks seen at Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado and the swirling snow covered landscapes of Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska. Several patterns use a combination of color and texture to add unique elements to the hats.

Close up view of a partially finished hat. The hat is a light cream color and shows cables representing cave formations.
Texture is a large player in the cabled beanie inspired by Carlsbad National Park.

Beware the Detour

Since my most recently visited park was Saguaro, I cast on a cactus inspired hat. While knitting the hats I ran into a few minor detours on my way to finishing the project. The gauge for the hats is given in stitches per inch around, but not rows per inch vertically. I matched the stitch gauge, but the first hat ended up being three inches too long. Since the circumference was a good fit I didn’t want to adjust the needle size. I was able to rip back and adjust the pattern and decreases slightly to produce a hat that fit better. Note that there is one size for each pattern, given to fit most adults. Slightly different sizes are achievable using larger or smaller needles. Patterns might be adjustable for kids sizes, but the knitter will need to calculate the stitches and adjust the charts.

The patterns in the book rely on charts, which take up an entire page. This makes them easy to see. Charts distinguish different stitches based on color (for colorwork patterns) and standard symbols. There is a legend appearing with each chart for easy reference. However, on a few patterns the colors used are not easy to distinguish from the grid lines in the chart. Another small issue is the row number labels are not centered on the rows for some of the patterns. This makes it difficult to track which number row is the active row without counting up from the bottom.

Extra Features

Knitting the National Parks begins with an overview of the book and the inspiration behind the designs. Then, Nancy Bates gives her advice on choosing yarn and how to properly wet block a finished hat for best results. Selecting the right yarn is important for projects where color choices and textures bring the landscapes to life.

Additionally, not only does color play a large role in a finished object, but different color combinations can create a variety of pleasant hats with the same pattern. The Saguaro National Park hat offered ideas for variations with colors to show both day and night time views. Read more about my adventure knitting the Saguaro National Park hat here. Several other hat patterns in the book contain tips and ideas to make more than one hat from the same base pattern. This extends the utility of the book beyond the original 63 patterns.

Hat featuring Saguaro cactus. The cactus are black and the background color is a variegated pink/blue/yellow to represent a sunset color scheme.
A hat featuring Saguaro cactus. The light green cactus stand out against a blue background.
Color takes the hat from shadows and sunset to broad daylight, all with the same pattern.

Nancy Bates goes beyond the knitting of a hat with some patterns that call for embroidering extra details on the finished objects. This gives some hats more depth and allows for each one to be absolutely unique. There is not a guide to embroidery techniques in the book, but suggestions are included for how to complete each project.

Final Thoughts

Going through Knitting the National Parks, there were 21 different hats that I would consider knitting. I chose those based on my familiarity with the particular National Park and the design of the hat. Beyond those, there are a handful of others that I really enjoyed and thought were clever! Considering how many patterns I found attractive, I think the book is a good value and retails at $35.00 in the US. That works out to $0.55 per pattern! I would recommend this book for someone who is familiar with knitting in the round and reading charts. The patterns are easy to follow and they produce beanie style hats that should fit the average adult.

A Spectacular SpongeBob Birthday Celebration

A Spectacular SpongeBob Birthday Celebration

Posted on by Kayla
Crochet SpongeBob birthday celebration character with blue party hat, holding pink cupcake with purple candle. SpongeBob is smiling with two buck teeth and bright blue eyes.

I have a tendency to go down rabbit holes. When my sister showed me a SpongeBob themed 25th birthday card, I couldn’t leave it at a birthday card. I went looking for SpongeBob themed plates and balloons and decorations. Which, by the way, you cannot find at Party City, I guess SpongeBob isn’t as popular anymore? To top it off, I knew I wanted to make a SpongeBob birthday celebration inspired present. 

First I had to decide what the project would be: SpongeBob himself or another one of the characters. I had both pink and yellow crochet thread, but somehow a starfish with five different points seemed to be more complicated than a yellow box. SpongeBob was the winner! In the interest of time and details, I knew I wanted something small, so I went with Aunt Lydia’s size 10 crochet cotton thread and a size 1.0 mm crochet hook.

I looked at a few patterns on Ravelry but ultimately decided to make it up as I went along. I started at the top of the head and made a rectangle, then worked down through the body until I got to his shirt. While working the body I looked through dozens of photos of the yellow sponge in order to best estimate the ratio of body to shirt and pants. I’m not sure if there is an official answer, but I came up with about 2/3 body to 1/3 clothes. He is also approximately 1.4 times taller than he is wide. 

Once I had the main body done I had to decide the best way to attach arms and legs. I added crafting wire in order to make them moveable and sturdier. I crocheted around the wire and then attached it to the main body. In the interest of time, and my sanity, I did not add his socks. 

Since this sponge knows how to party, I added a blue cone shaped party hat and a micro cupcake. The little candle on top of the cupcake was one of the most fiddley components! While my sister may be great at baking, I prefer crochet varieties of cupcakes. If you do too, I have some in my Etsy shop!

A tiny doll plate covered in miniature crochet cupcakes. The cupcakes have yellow or pink frosting on chocolatey brown cake bottoms. Several cupcakes are sprinkled.
A plateful of crochet cupcakes, ready to celebrate any occasion!

The facial details were the last step of this project. Originally I was going to use Googly eyes. My husband suggested making crochet ones instead, and I’m so glad he did! The blue iris and eye lashes really made the face stand out. The nose was crocheted to come out from the rest of the face. 

Close up view of crochet and embroidered details of SpongeBob face. Eyes are white crochet circles with embroidered blue iris and French knot pupils. Four eyelashes extend outward to bring a happy demeanor to the face.
Close up of facial details on the birthday celebration SpongeBob.

Overall I was pretty happy with how the SpongeBob birthday celebration turned out! I added an optional keychain so he can be carried around for year round fun!

Baby Booties for a Quick Win

Baby Booties for a Quick Win

Posted on by Kayla

Are you in search of a sweet handmade gift for upcoming babies in your life? Recently I found myself with several coworkers and friends who all announced that they were expecting babies this spring. While I love the chance to make gifts for important people in my life, baby blankets for all of them at once was an impossible task. Even though I have greatly improved my baby sweater skills, which you can read about here, I needed an alternative answer. Enter the baby booties!

Three crochet baby booties lined up facing right, they range from largest of the left to smallest on the right. A variety of green colors are involved, with the largest being a vibrant bright green, the center booties a mixture of light and dark green, and the far right being seafoam green.
Three baby booties made with the same pattern. Change the color or hook size for a multitude of results!

Booties for the Cuties!

Baby booties are adorable. There is no arguing with that, it is a fact. Walking through department stores I always coo at the impossibly small baby booties on display. Since they are so small, baby booties are a great item to make when you want to experiment with different stitches or if you are pressed for time.

A quick search for baby bootie patterns yields hundreds of results. It doesn’t matter if you knit or crochet, there are great options out there. For my first bootie, I wanted something with a simple design so I could gauge how it would come together. I decided to crochet the Parker Baby Booties by Sewrella. An exact gauge isn’t given in the pattern. Instead, the pattern references using different sized crochet hooks to obtain larger or smaller booties. My first pair of booties used Simply Soft yarn and a size G6 4.0 mm crochet hook.

Baby booties made with Simply Soft yarn and 4.0 mm crochet hook.

According to the pattern notes this should result in a bootie that would be appropriate for ages 4 – 6 months. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and Simply Soft seems to be on the thinner side of the worsted weight scale. I realized that I have no idea how big the feet on a 4 – 6 month old is on average. I didn’t know how to judge if I needed change the hook size.

Measuring Tape to the Rescue

While out for errands I decided that the best way to figure out how big the booties should be was to measure existing booties. I found a nice variety of tiny little booties at Kohl’s. Out came the measuring tape from my purse (I know you have one too). In a few minutes I had written down approximate lengths and widths for everything from newborn to 24 months. In comparing different brands and styles I noticed there was a range of measurements for each size. Next, I typed up my scribbled notes and added them to the table below for ease of visualization.

Sizing chart for crochet baby booties, ranging from ages newborn to 24 months.

Will Crocheted Baby Booties Measure Up?

The obvious next step was to compare all of my notes to the little bootie fresh off my crochet hook. The tape measure came back with a verdict: as often happens my tension was a little tight and the finished product a little small. The pattern had indicated the final bootie would fit a 4 – 6 month old, yet it measured right at 3.5 inches in length, the measurement I most commonly saw at the newborn size. I wanted a baby booties that would fit for several months. I changed up my hook to H8 5.0 mm and went with a thicker worsted weight yarn. A much better (and slightly bigger) result!

Two baby booties side by side, facing the left. The one on the left is made with larger hook and yarn and is longer.
The left bootie was made with larger yarn and hook, followed the same pattern.
Two crochet baby booties bottom sides facing out, left one is made with larger hook and yarn and is longer than the right one.
The left bootie was made with larger yarn and hook, you can clearly see the difference in size.

I enjoyed stitching up these quick gifts for coworkers and friends. Baby booties are a great project to try out new stitches or techniques because they are small and work up quickly. If you’re in the mood for some more baby gift ideas, check out my other ideas in a previous blog post.

Tiny Crochet Cupcakes: The Treat To Complete Your Summer

Tiny Crochet Cupcakes: The Treat To Complete Your Summer

Posted on by Kayla

Are you draw to miniature versions of things like I am? Somehow when things are smaller they just hold more appeal! Puppies, books, baby clothes (have you seen a baby shoe? They are so small they have to be adorable!), and food items are all cuter when they are smaller. You can read back about my post on magnetic mini pumpkins from last fall for more proof. You can also read on for more on my latest tiny creation: tiny crochet cupcakes! Or you can get one for yourself in my Etsy store.

Featured in the center of the photo is a small glass jar filled with tiny crochet cupcakes of assorted colors. On either side of the jar are colorful silicone cupcake molds.
These tiny crochet cupcakes are a great and colorful way to fill glass jars!

With the summer heat in full force, it is too hot to be baking in the kitchen! In order to combat the desire for sweet treats this time of year (and to avoid turning on an oven) I came up with these tiny crochet cupcakes! These little beauties are made with DMC size 8 thread. A fair size thinner then my typical yarn of choice! For this small of a thread I use a size 1.0 mm crochet hook. I should also get a magnifying glass!

Cupcakes are so versatile. They can be used for celebrating birthdays, weddings, graduations, or just for a pick me up at the end of a day. I love the endless options! When crocheting cupcakes I wanted to make something that was simple but still fun. After many iterations I finally landed on a frosting type that makes me smile. It looks like little swirls of frosting around the edge!

Three vibrant ombre pink cupcakes sit on a small white plate from a children's tea set. The matching tea pot and cup are shown in the background.
Three cupcakes shown in the palm of an adult woman's hand for size.
A yellow cupcake with pink and blue sprinkles and a small blue candle shown in front of a small white tea cup.

I found this amazing ombré colored thread and knew it would make a pretty in pink cupcake. The color changes worked well for the small scale of the project! It even worked on a super tiny version of the cupcake!

Bright pink ombre cupcakes shown against a white background. On the left is a micro cupcake, in the center a US quarter, and on the right a tiny cupcake.
Even on the micro cupcake shown on the left, the pink thread shows off natural ombre characteristics!

In addition to the pink, I wanted to use a yellow frosting for some of the tiny crochet cupcakes. I made some plain, and then decided they needed a little more pizzazz! Enter sprinkles! The color combinations are endless and sprinkles can add texture as well as color. I experimented with using French knots and simple straight stitches for sprinkles. In the future I think tiny beads would be fun to use as well! You can see all my different combinations in my Etsy store.

In the background are three silicone cupcake molds in striking green and blue colors. Balanced in the center mold are three yellow tiny crochet cupcakes with colorful sprinkles.
French knots and straight stitches make for a great way to add texture and color to tiny crochet cupcakes.
Crochet Donut Buddies: Donut You Want to Know it All?

Crochet Donut Buddies: Donut You Want to Know it All?

Posted on by Kayla

A Delicious Book Review

Instagram is a great way to discover new things, from inspirational people to beautiful indie dyed colorways to different and exciting books! I find myself drawn to certain things when scrolling through my feed. At the top of that list are cute stuffed toys and sweet treats. Rachel Zain’s new book, Crochet Donut Buddies: 50 easy amigurumi patterns for collectible crochet toys, combines both of my weaknesses! As soon as I saw adorable crochet donuts flooding my feed, I knew I needed to obtain a copy of the book.

Along with this review, if you are interested in reading other book reviews, check out my review of Crochet Iconic Women and Edward’s Menagerie.

About the Book

Cover of the book Crochet Donut Buddies, it is a white background with different donut buddies featured including an alien, snail, unicorn, and sunflower.
The book cover for Crochet Donut Buddies showcases so many of the fun designs!

Crochet Donut Buddies retails for $22.99 in the US. You can find it on Amazon or through the publishers David and Charles. Within the 128 pages there are 50 patterns captured with fun photography and filled with extra details that make the projects more interesting.

As soon as you open the book you are greeted with cute donut designs. All start with the same basic recipe that creates that fun donut look. The instructions are clear and well written, and there are photographs showing different steps as you go. I always appreciate when authors explain any special techniques or abbreviations used in the patterns, and this book does a great job at covering everything! In the back of the book there is a techniques sections that goes over basic stiches, increases, and decreases. Given the (semi-ridiculous) amount of amigurumi that I have done over the years, I was pleasantly surprised to learn a new stitch for an invisible decrease. It is something I will carry on to future projects!

Baking Up Some Cuteness

The turtle donut buddy has sprinkles and flowers adorning the shell.

The first project that I made from the book was the turtle. The book recommends adding sprinkles and tiny flowers to the back of the shell. This added a lot of color and made the finished turtle adorable! It is these details that make the final projects feel really well finished. Second, I crocheted (after much deliberation, there are so many options!) the triceratops. Rachel recommends adding a white stitch on the outside of the eyes, and I have to say it really makes them pop and adds a twinkle of life to the dinosaur! It is a simple and genius addition.

I love the frills around the triceratops head, and the white highlights around the eye make them twinkle with life!

After looking through all of the projects I can definitely picture putting together a coordinating playset. You can make a set of farm animals, sea creatures, or holiday designs. While none of the projects are too challenging, they are rates on a scale of one to five donuts difficulty.

The Icing On Top

In short, Crochet Donut Buddies is a really fun book with a lot of tempting projects! I like the versatility of the base pattern and the easy to understand directions in the book. Although many of the projects build on the same beginning patterns, the unique color patterns and details provided in the book help customize each donut. My goal is to whip up a bakers dozen of donut buddies!