Sunday 24 April 2011

Girls Sumer Hats and Free Flower Pattern

Firstly, can I wish you a Happy Easter and if you don't celebrate Easter then a Happy sunny Sunday to you!

Well it is that time of year when the school has started to ask the little people to wear their sun hats when they play outside, so I decided to make the girls new hats for this year.  Last years hats were gorgeous but as I had made them from 100% cotton, one play outside with water and the cotton gave into the laws of gravity and dropped something dreadful!
So this year I decided to use a blended yarn, a cotton and acrylic mix, so the hats still look and feel like cotton but hopefully (fingers crossed!) the acrylic should help the cotton stay in the shape I make it.

The pattern I used last year and re-using this year is the Sofie Floppy by Adrienne Engar and this pattern can be found here.
I love this pattern and it suits my girls totally, here is them wearing their hats.










Now you will see that I have added pink and yellow flowers to the hats and it is this pattern that I am going to give you.
Before I start I would just like to point out that this pattern has come out of the confused scrambledness of my head but I am not totally 100% sure that it is original or if at some point I have read this pattern elsewhere and stored it away until it surfaced again ( I do have my original scribbles and notes), so if this pattern bears any resemblance to yours or to someone that you know then I would like to apologise as I did not mean to copy.

This pattern will be written in UK terms, US terms will be in brackets ( )
Stitches used
slst - slip stitch
ch - chain
dc (sc) - double crochet (single crochet)
tr (dc) - treble crochet (double crochet)
2trtog (2dctog) - work a treble but stop before the last yarn over and pull through 2 loops, work the next stitch to the same point then yarn over and pull through all 4 loops on hook.
2 dbtrtog (2trtog) - work a double treble (wrap yarn over hook twice before starting) but stop before the last yarn over and pull through 2 loops, work the next stitch to the same point then yarn over and pull through all 4 loops on hook.

I am using DK weight yarn with 4.00mm hook, but any yarn weight with suitable hook will do, tension (gauge) is not important.
(For those that are going to use the photo tutorial, please accept my apologies for the fact that blogger has decided to change some pics from landscape to portrait and I cannot seem to change them back again!)

- 6ch and join into a loop with a slip stitch
- 1ch, 15dc (sc) into ring

- sl st in front loop only to close

- with new colour - (if changing colours)
Work the rest of this round in front loops only
- *2ch in sl st, work a partial tr2tog (dc2tog) over next 2 sts - do not complete the final yarn over and pull through 2 loops, repeat in next st before final yarn over and pull through remaining 4 loops, 2ch and sl st in next dc (sc)

- rep from * 4 more times making 5 petals, sl st in 1st ch (change colour at sl st if changing again)

Now at this point you might be thinking this flower looks hideous, all straggly and ugly but bear with it, it will improve immensely when the back loops are worked into and pull it all back into shape
The back of your work should look like this

Now with the yellow yarn from round 1 that you dropped before, sl st into the back loop of the sl st from round 2

Now working in the free/back loops from Round 2
To make these petals visible behind the first petals these need to be taller so they will be worked like this
- *3ch, work a partial 2dbtrtog (2trtog) (wrap the yarn over the hook twice, pull loop through, yarn over and pull through 2 loops 2 times in each st before yarn over and pull through remaining 4 loops), rep from * 4 more times making 5 larger petals.

Your finished flower should look something like this



Now weave in your ends and VĂ³ila, one double layer flower!

The flowers can be done in 1, 2 or 3 colours and in each instance will give many different results depending on colours used.

And for those of you who just want the pattern, here it is just written out, no pics;

- 6ch, join with sl st into a loop
- 1 ch 15 dc (sc) into loop and join with sl st - optional colour change
Work this Round in Front Loop Only
-  * 2ch, 2trtog (2dctog) over next 2 sts, 2ch slst into next st, rep from * 4 more times - 5 petals
Optional colour change here 
- Work this Round in Back/Free Loops of round 2
- *3ch, 2dbtrtog (2trtog) over next 2 sts, 3ch slst into next st, rep from * 4 more times - 5 petals.

Fasten off and weave in ends.

2 comments:

  1. Such a cute flower pattern Pam. Thanks for sharning with us. Hope you dont mind but I've linked to you over on Pintrest (http://pinterest.com/pin/16439731/)
    Gemxxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for that and many thanks for linking to Pinterest too, x

    ReplyDelete