Crochet: Straw Sun Hat {Pattern}

Isn’t it summer hot and sunny? Some of you enjoy the sunbeam but I am not, too bad huh~~~ I need a sun hat to cover and protect my head and face… in fact, I need this all year round over here… lol!!!

This straw wide brim sun hat matches the straw beach bag perfectly (click the link to go to the tutorial on how to crochet the beach bag). Upon finishing the beach bag, I have to buy extra rafia (raffia) yarn to make this sun hat, love the finishing that the rafia yarn gave. The flower brooch on the hat is from the left over rafia yarn from this hat, and I also bought some green yarn to make the petal (pattern  and tutorial coming soon here).

The crochet technique is the same as those in straw beach bag, a 2 layer crochet by using the back loop and front loop of a stitch respectively for each layer. You may refer the tutorial on how to crochet it in the straw beach bag.

Get the crochet pattern after the jump. ….

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Crochet: Straw Beach Bag {Tutorial & Pattern}

This is a crochet straw beach bag (drawstring type) I designed and made with rafia yarn recently. The rafia yarn is thin and flat like plastic strips, softer than rafia twine. It is easy to crochet and the result is surprisingly soft and gentle to touch.

This shoulder bag is made by a double layer crochet technique. The 1st layer is single crochet (back loops only) from bottom to top, then you work upside down for the second layer, just slip stitch on the front loops for each and every stitch. As simple as that!

Remember to crochet 12 holes for the eyelets. Used a long fat white elastic band ( I bought it from hair accessories shop) and sew a fabric to the ends as the ribbon ties. The elastic drawstring closure is superbly convenient, now you don’t have to pull-to-tie and untie-to-release the bag when taking things in and out. Didn’t summer supposed to be easy and relax?

Get the crochet pattern and some how-to photos after the jump. ….

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Crochet Pattern: Yoyo-Puff Wide Brim Hat For Girl

I have done 2 halterneck tops (knitted and crochet) for my daughter and now I challenged myself to design and crochet this yo-yo puff wide brim summer hat. Do you like it? She likes it a lot… basically, she likes all the things I made, lol….

I would say that it is a perfect hat for spring and summer. Look at the cavities between the yo-yo puffs, it makes the hat airy so you head won’t get cooked by the heat captured in the hat during summer. The wide brim is just nice to block away certain degree of sunlight. And, I used the 100% cotton yarns left over from the granny square haltered neck top (the one she is wearing), love the colors!!!!

You can also decorate the hat by pinning a brooch or corsage at the brim area.

If you are pro enough, you can always modify the pattern and make a bigger version for adult, like adding another yo for the yo-yo puff and increase the stitches to the brim accordingly. ….

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Crochet Tutorial: Yo-Yo Puff

Have you ever fascinated with the fabric yo-yo puffs to make this and this and this and this? If you can crochet, I have a crochet version to make those yo-yo puffs!!!!

As you may notice, this is not a normal crochet circular shape, it is a real double layer yo-yo puff just like the fabric version. I crocheted a summer hat for my daughter by using these yo-yo puffs… you will get to see this in my next tutorial [Update: click the summer hat link to go there]. There are so many great projects for fabric yo-yo, now we can transform them into crochet version…. may be a comfy baby blanket, what do you think?

Crochet yo-yo puff is not difficult to make, as long as you know how to do chain, treble, treble decrease and triple treble. Following are the step by step photos and instructions on how to crochet it. ….

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Crochet Pattern: Granny Square Haltered-Neck Top For Young Girl

Weather is hot here and just like summer of many countries, this crochet granny square top comes really handy to accustom ourselves in the heat wave season. This is the second project I did for my daughter this month after the Ruffle Flower Headband and the second haltered-neck top after the knitted version. May be I will sew another one for her for the next,

If you haven’t got the pattern and tutorial on how to crochet this colorful granny squares, click here!!!! Now, let’s see how we are going to put all the pieces of granny squares together to make this haltered-neck top for a young girl.

This patching up method is using the last round of crochet to join, if you find it difficult to understand or troublesome to make, you can always crochet all the squares and half-squares then join them up by sewing them using tapestry needle.

If you want other sizes, change hook size and yarn accordingly to change the finishing size. Or, you can add a round or two to make the square bigger for adult size, it is all up to you provided you know how to modify the stitches and rows for the collar, armhole, end hem and back band. ….

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Crochet Tutorial: Granny Squares

I fell in love to Granny Square!!! Where did the name come from? Must be related from a granny that designed and made it, I searched but can’t find, even wikipedia didn’t tell….

Granny Square is a kind of patch-working in crochet where we can literally put any color combinations we like to make it a square (or a triangle or any symmetrical shapes you can design) and patch them together to form a project. I love the flexibility it provides in design in terms of motifs, color combinations, shapes and sizes…. I crocheted a halterneck neck top for my daughter by using this square, yeah, another halterneck top for her after the knitted version. Will show the tutorial of the granny square top in my next post and how to join granny squares to form a piece.

There are many types of granny square, from plain basic square to sunburst flower square to emboss ….

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