I am constantly looking for new hobbies because I get bored easily and luckily boredom so often leads to creativity!

A couple of the ladies that hiked The Whale Trail with me in December, were learning to crochet. It looked like a fun thing to do in our downtime while hiking and I could make beanies and fingerless gloves for my hiking buddies.

So here it is!!!! My very first Beanie.

YouTube is incredibly helpful. For this novice it was only helpful but a lifesaver because I started off completely clueless.

I did some basic sewing, knitting and needlework in junior school, and I grew up with my mom and grandmother both seeing and knitting but I’ve never tried to actually make something myself.

So I scanned YouTube and found a decent beginners pattern.

Problem 1: I didn’t understand the stitch shorthand for the various names of the stitches so the beginner video really broke it down and went slowly so that I could easily copy the demo.

Problem 2: I needed to buy the right yarn and crochet needles. I headed down to the local haberdashery and found everything that I was looking for.

I decided on an awesome doubleknit yarn with various colours and a size 4 crochet hook.

Next I practiced creating a chain as my base row and then learned a single stitch, double stitch and half double stitch.

Then I simply followed the instructions from the video, pausing it as I went. First I made a chain of 51 stitches. Then I did one row of single stitches. Then I did my half double stitch for 46 rows. The rows slowly formed the rubbing of the beanie and I made the beanie extra long by making my first chain longer than the pattern recommended.

Once I had a large rectangular I used a slip stitch to close up the long end of the rectangle. Then I used a large yarn needle to thread the wool back and forth along the one open end of the beanie. When I pulled the thread tight it winched in the end to close the top of the hat.

Lastly I simply folder up the long cuff of the beanie. It fits perfectly and is a wonderful slouchy beanie for the next hiking season.

I think all my family are going to getting beanies for their birthdays this year.

Here’s a link to the beginner video that I followed

Now to make another on for my sister!!!