Guest Blog spot - Pam Harrow from Loves a good yarn.

We would like to welcome our first Guest Blogger, please meet Pam Harrow from Lovesagoodyarn.

Hi there, as a happy mum of 2 little ladies and a happy wife of one wonderful man, my other joy in life at the moment is crochet.

I have been able to knit since for what seems like forever but more probably since I was about 6 or 7, this has been an on and off affair for the last 30-ish years but it was last year when my mum showed me how to make a crochet chain to finish off a knitted toy that I fell in love with crochet.  It makes so much sense, I feel much more creative when I crochet, I have come up with my own patterns, something that I never would have considered with knitting.

To say I am 'hooked' is an understatement, ask my husband as he has to fight his way past all the yarn that is rapidly taking over our home!  It is because of this that I have opened my Folksy shop to sell the things that I make.

I always seem to have numerous projects on the go at the same time, some are easy to take out, others are too delicate/complicated so they stay at home, I am currently working on orders taken at the last craft fair that I did, in between this, family life and working as a minibus driver for a charity I am also trying to work in winter/Christmas (!) stock for craft fairs later in the year.

There you go, that is me, Pam Harrow aka Loves a good Yarn.

http://www.folksy.com/shops/lovesagoodyarn

https://www.facebook.com/lovesagoodyarn

Girls Sumer Hats and Free Flower Pattern

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 usedslst - slip stitchch - chaindc (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 shapeThe 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 2To 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 Vóila, 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.

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