Birch Bark cowl

A while ago I ordered a lucky dip package from Fyberspates.  This lovely yarn is one of the skeins that arrived.  Although it wasn't labelled I'm fairly certain it's 'squishy yarn', certainly it feels like alpaca!
I'm waiting for some handmade wooden buttons to arrive and will post finished pictures as soon as!
I used a 52g skein (!) which I can't be certain of the meterage of so I would recommend having spare yarn on hand just in case...

You will need an 8mm hook and two 2cm buttons/3cm toggle buttons ( I got these buttons from sew Annie sew on Folksy).

This pattern can be adjusted to any size, just change the length of the starting chain: as long as the number of chains is divisible by 2 it should all work out fine...

Ch 46
1. sc in bottom of 2nd ch from hook and bottom of each ch across, turn (45)
2. ch1, (sc, ch1 sk1) across, turn.
3. ch1, sc in 1st st, (sc in ch sp, ch1, sk sc)across, sc in last 2 st, turn.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 for 9 more rows (or until cowl is size needed)

13. ch1, sc in each sc and ch sp across, 3sc in last st of row (do not break yarn!), turn to work across short edge, work 12 more sc evenly across (1 st in each row end), turn
14. ch2, LDC (linked double crochet) in each st across, turn
15-16: repeat row 14
17: ch2, hdc in each st across, fasten off.

Sew on buttons ready to go on the schoolrun!

April Showers hat

I've resolved that this will be the year that I do a craft fair.  Yes it will.  And now I've written it down here it surely will come true.
In honour of this forthcoming event, I had a bit of a stash diving session and dug out all the yarns I had left over from cloth nappying days that never got worked up into longies and suchlike.  I found some Pixie Knits yarn I acquired from a friend, it has no label but I think the colour is Aria.  This is the hat I came up with:

It's based on a lot of other childrens hats I've made and increases in multiples of six stitches so it's quite easy to adjust the sizing by adding extra increase rounds following the formula!

5mm hook, 100g aran weight yarn

Size small approx 16" around (12+ months)

Size medium approx 17.5" around (18+ months)

Size large approx 19" around (2 years +)

(larger sizes bracketed round numbers)

1. Ch2, 6sc in 2nd ch from hook

Mark 1st st of each round with stitch marker, do not join rounds.  Work in back loop only (BLO)

2. (In BLO) 2sc in each st around (12)

3. (2sc, sc) around (18)

4. (2sc, sc in next 2 st) around (24)

5. (2sc, sc in next 3 st) around (30)

6. (2sc, sc in next 4 st) around (36)

7. (2sc, sc in next 5 st) around (42)

8. (2sc, sc in next 6 st) around (48)

9. (2sc, sc in next 7 st) around (54)

10. (2sc, sc in next 8 st) around (60) stop increase rounds here for the smallest size

11. (2sc, sc in next 9 st) around (66) stop increase rounds here for the medium size

12. (2sc, sc in next 10 st) around (72) stop increase rounds here for the largest size

11 (12,13) - 28 (30, 32) - sc around in BLO

In first st of next round sl st.  Fasten off and weave in ends.

Flower:

I'm a bit lazy and always looking for ways to avoid sewing in ends.  For the flower I used a technique I discovered while working up some afghan squares where at a certain point you work in the front loops before going back to work in the back loops.  If you leave a long enough tail before the slip knot there's even less sewing :)

This was made using the 5mm hook again

1. Ch2, 6sc in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in 1st sc to join.

2. Ch1, 2sc in each st around, sl st to join (12)

3. Ch1, (2sc, sc) around, sl st in front loop to join (18)

4. Working in front loop only, ch1 (sc, hdc), (hdc, dc,hdc), (hdc, sc) around to form the 6 smaller petals.  Sl st in back loop behind start of first petal to join.

5. In BLO (2hdc, hdc in next 2 st) around, sl st in 1st to join (24)

6.  Ch3, 2dc in same st, sk 1, sl st in next, (sk1, 5dc in next st, sk1, sl st in next) around, work 2dc in 1st st worked to complete the first petal.  Sl st in top of ch3 to join.  Fasten off, weave in.  Use the long tail to attach the flower to the hat.

This pattern is for personal use only, thanks :)