The Cloche originates from the 1920s and was made of felt for a form-fitting bell-shaped hat. While I was looking for a new hat pattern to try out, I couldn’t find one for a cloche that I particularly liked. They were either too bell-shaped or not bell-shaped enough, so I decided to try my hand at making a cloche-inspired hat with just a subtle bell-shape that I wouldn’t mind wearing.

I tried out, for the first time, Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Superwash (50% merino, 50% wool). The yarn felt a little stiff when it was in the ball, but once it was crocheted up into the hat, it felt nice and soft. My only complaint about the yarn is that it splits easily when crocheting – this is a common issue with superwash yarns.

The pattern for this hat has been written up and has three different sizes available (21.25″, 22″ and 24″ for head circumference). The name of the pattern is Ruse, there’s no real story about where the name of the hat came from.

Want to make your own hat? The pattern is free! Click to download a PDF copy of the Ruse hat pattern.

Difficulty Level: Easy

100% alpaca yarn, like the yarn shown above, has washing instructions on the yarn label. For this yarn, it is handwashing only in cold water. Gentle handwashing versus the washing machine can mean the difference between a sweater that fits and one that is suddenly several sizes too small.

What happens when you toss a knitted or crocheted item into the washing machine?
It can be fulled (not felted) or it doesn’t – what makes this difference? The type of fibre makes a huge difference in what happens to the final product.

What is fulling?
If you take animal fibres (i.e. wool, which comes from sheep) and make it up into a fabric (i.e. crochet, knit or weave with it) and subject it to water, agitation and (sometimes) heat, you get a dense fabric.

For example, say you knit a pair of mittens for someone out of wool and then they toss those mittens into the washing machine. And then they come out roughly the size of an infant’s finger. The mittens will have shrank, the stitches are no longer visible and the fabric is dense.

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Here’s a selection of crafts that I’ve done in 2009, most of them are on this website.

Not pictured are approximately 30 pairs of earrings that I have not gotten around to photographing, maybe ~5 Blythe hats and another sweater, 2 scarves and the hat that I’m currently working on.

I wish everyone a happy new year and well wishes for 2010.

This is a somewhat delayed post for the pair of earrings that I designed and gifted to a friend for her 20th birthday! It went along with the Crochet Ribbed Cowl and was packaged in one of the new butterfly boxes I got for jewellery packaging (super darling boxes, they’re marketed for wedding favours, but because they came in an assortment of colours and don’t have a specific design, I use them for jewellery packaging).

I used a mix of green beads and star charms to go along with the ‘antiqued’ earring hooks (stainless steel that has been chemically treated, they go well with the star charms). They measure about an inch in diameter, if memory serves.

• Try to use materials from my stashes (beads, yarn or fabric) – A.K.A. spend as little as humanly possible on craft supplies for the year – Exceptions to this would be ‘necessary’ things like: wire (for making jump rings, eye pins, head pins, etc.), felt (for accents for amigurumis) and spools of thread (for the sewing machine, of course).
• If I have to spend money on craft supplies, I’ve decided on a $2 allowance per month (so a maximum of $24, including tax, for the year). I’ll be keeping track of this on the blog (guess that means no more buying wonderful handmade lampwork beads… I have a lot already, that haven’t been used yet!)
• To crochet and/or knit a minimum of 12 preemie hats for a local hospital as a donation (I was originally thinking of 52, one for each week, but I figured that would soon become more of a ‘chore’ than something I’d like to do – one per month should be a good amount) – I also want to learn “new” things for each hat (new stitches, new patterns, etc.)
• Utilize the wonderful crochet stitch dictionary that I receieved for my birthday! It’s The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs: 500 Classic and Original Patterns by Linda Schapper and I haven’t gotten a chance to use it as much as I would have liked (used it as a reference so far and used one of the mesh patterns for my mom’s Christmas scarf). I love this book. It’s in need of a review for this site though!
• Do reviews! I’m planning to do at least 2 reviews per month – probably not in April or December, due to exams, but I figured I could ‘catch up’ or do some in advanced in the other months. This is where I plan on using (and slightly abusing) my local public library, as well as some of the books that my sister and I already own as well as maybe buying some magazines (I’m currently on the hunt for a new/recent copy of Crochet Today! – I’ve tried 3 different bookstores and haven’t had any luck yet)
• Get better at taking photographs. I own a point-and-shoot Sony Cybershot (DSC-W150) and have for almost a year (since January 2009). And on that note…
• Make a light box! I’ve been meaning to since forever. I even have some saved boxes just for the purpose of making a light box, I just haven’t gotten around to making it yet.
• And, lastly, but definitely not least, to be more organized with all of my craft supplies (I’m going to be cleaning out a few drawers so not all of my beading supplies are, ahem, everywhere – as well as getting a few bins to put my jointly-owned yarn stash somewhere besides in zipped plastic bags in a giant clear plastic garbage bag).