The results are in…

The results are in from my poll on what I should crochet next…a toque for my baby was the winner! I was excited to make this because it will be something I will actually use. I won’t be using it for long as the weather is warming up, but that’s ok. I found a video from one of my favourite YouTubers – Expression Fiber Arts. A triple or treble crochet stitch was used to make the toque. I had never used this stitch before. It was easy to pick up as it is very similar to the double crochet stitch.

I had bought some new yarn for this project. It was of weight 3 which I had never used before. The label suggested a size G hook, luckily I had one of those. I did the first round or row of the hat, but found the yarn very difficult to use. I tried some different yarn (weight 4) which used an H hook and had much better luck. I decided I would go with the thicker yarn this time. Because you are crocheting all stitches into the slipknot, you want to leave the loop quite big. After finishing the first round you’re supposed to pull the tail end of the yarn to tighten up the hole in the middle of the hat that you put all your stitches into. I, apparently, made my slip stitch wrong because it wouldn’t tighten to close the hole. Now, normally it wouldn’t matter if the working end or the tail end tightened up your slip knot, but in this case it does.

 

Photo Credit: crochetguru.com

After looking at other ways to make a slip knot, I finally got one that worked the way I needed it to. So, after crocheting the first round three times, I could finally move onto the second! For the second round you need to work two triple crochets into every stitch from the previous round. I was a little apprehensive about this because it was new to me, but it wasn’t difficult at all.  

I had seen this on other patterns I had read and it sounded difficult and I wasn’t sure how it worked. Turns out, it isn’t difficult at all. Those patterns will no longer intimidate me! The rest of the hat went pretty quickly.

My finished product isn’t near as good as Chandi’s, but it is a start. I mean, my little girl does look adorable! I probably could have crocheted one my round. She’s just getting so big. Part way through I started trying to make my triple crochets quite tight in hopes that the spaces in between would be less, but it only made them bigger. Anyone have advice on how to make the toque a little more tight knit and therefore better at blocking out the wind? The next time I make a toque I think I’ll try a different stitch, maybe that will help.

Now, what will I make next…