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

Update August 21 2010: Due to some questions regarding how to proceed with Round 1 of the Ruse hat pattern, I’ve updated the pdf file with the second revision and it is now available for download.

The Seafoam Drift Scarf was made for my mom for the holidays. She loves it! It’s a crocheted scarf in an open mesh pattern with a fringe added on. I’m toying with the idea of posting up the pattern for this. The open mesh pattern is really easy to do and it works up fairly quickly, because of all the open space. It took ~6 hours and it is about 5’5″ long.

Pattern: None used
Materials: Bernat Satin Sport in Jade
Length: ~5’5″ (without fringe)

The entire scarf, the fringe is actually even (it looks a bit uneven in this photo, probably because I didn’t arrange it very well on the carpet).

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This hat was done in 100% acrylic yarn (Red Heart Comfort Prints). I finished the large ball that I had bought when I first started learning how to crochet, back in 2006. The ball was 340g (12oz) and I had used the majority of it to make a book bag (my first crochet project, done without a pattern) and other small amounts to make mini-purses (so I could practice how to increase and decrease).

I pretty much threw all the simple stitches that I knew at this hat. There are single crochet, half-doubles, one row of triples, and a bunch of double crochets until the very end. There is also one row of back-loop only in single crochet and one row of front-post only in double crochet stitches.

Model: Belarus

This sweater was done in Patons Purple Heather 100% wool. There was no colour name, all the label has is the dye lot and the day it was made: 26/11/1973. The yarn was from the stash that my mom had given me when I started knitting.

I made up the pattern as I went along, I changed the way I did the arm holes from the grey sweater dress, these ones more resemble button holes.

Model: Sophie

This sweater dress was done in sock-weight 100% acrylic yarn… I lost the label so I don’t know what brand it is (yet I somehow remember the fiber, whoot).

This was my first time attempting to do arm holes, and they will never be doing it this way again (I basically left holes large enough for her entire arm to go through).

Model: Belarus