Cochram
Cochram is a quick, easy, and trendy slouchy hat pattern just in time for the cooling weather. Worked up in Plymouth Yarns Haciendo, this hat has an interesting and attractive texture due to the yarn’s thick-and-thin spin. It knits up so quickly you can knit it, start to finish, by the end of Star Trek: First Contact.
Crochet is back! Well, it has been working its way back into mainstream style and fashion circles for a few years now. I always find it interested when crochet accessories very happily dive into the kitschy, somewhat tacky color and yarn combinations of the 60s and 70s.
Example: the Sweet Retreat Hat now available on Modcloth.
Sweet Retreat Hat
In the eyes of a crocheter, this looks like the perfect scrap yarn project. It looks like mostly acrylic yarn crocheted up in a granny-square style in the round. Some colors are more fuzzy than others, making me think there are blends of fibers in there, including some mohair around the edge.
Monday I went to the public library near my house to check out a copy of Jan Eaton’s 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns and was highly entertained by the use and mixture of eyelash yarn, standard weight wool/acrylic, and variegated and metallic yarns. It seemed so tacky and outdated. But maybe it just depends on your color palette.
Hat Detail
These colors are very carefully mixed and ordered. The teal and pink are complimented by the black & white plied, shiny acrylic. For some reason, maybe because of magic, it doesn’t look horrible here. Or maybe they were just very aware of the effect of eyelash yarn and made sure to stay away from it. Either way, the hat is adorable, kitschy, and still appealing. Modern, but not contemporary. And probably pretty easy to replicate with some stash yarn. The trick is, though, to pick colors that create a pleasing palette, and that involves using at least one true contrasting color in the midst of your palette. You’ll notice here that purple, pink, red, and white (and black) create a nice gradient palette, but the teal provides the necessary contrast to appreciate the palette and make it not look like it was crocheted for a five year old. Color theory is a wonderful thing.
It didn’t take me long to start one of these. And it didn’t take me long to make it, either.
I think I’m the loosest crocheter ever, because the adult size ended up being a slouchy hat instead of a beanie. I used Cotton-Ease, which is a standard, worsted weight, yet I crochet loose, so I figured it’d all even out. Well, the stitches were huge so the hat came out pretty large. But I absolutely adore it. I ended up doing only about 28 rows instead of the 37, mostly because I ran out of yarn. I managed to squeeze out one row of single crochet around the edge. And I just used a slip stitch join rather than whip-stitching.
When I make another one I’ll follow the directions a bit better, I think. I need to find some yarn at the shop to use so I can make a store sample!
Queue it up here:
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Crochet seems to work best when you keep things simple. Case in point: this adorable beanie.
A simple hat worked in double crochet and using short rows for its construction. Yet what makes it so appealing is the addition of gradient stripes for just three rows.
The pattern includes sizes from baby to adult, and looks like it could be easily adjusted by adding or subtracting your starting amount of stitches.
There really is no better time to learn to crochet than now!
You can queue it up here:
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For being such fashion inspiration, Vogue really doesn’t have inspired names for its projects.
That aside …
If you crochet and haven’t seen Vogue Knitting’s special crochet volume, go get it. Now. The patterns are gorgeous, totally doable, stylish, and surprisingly wearable. There’s just something about crochet patterns that makes them hard to envision being worn on a regular basis.
Probably the most wearable is the very simple bobble hat pattern, which I’ve already made two of … (finals week stress leads to lots of knitting and crochet, which makes me procrastinate which in turn makes me more stressed). One is being blocked at the moment, but the first one has already been worn a few times.
I got stitch gauge, but not row gauge, with Berroco Vintage DK. The hat turned out the right circumference but much shorter than the pattern suggests. The color isn’t exactly represented well here; I’m still learning how to use my DSLR so my white balancing is less than stellar. I’ll get there.
I probably could have gone up a hook size for it to turn out bigger, but I kind of like it as-is. It was also a first-run, and a stash burning project. Because working at a yarn shop leads to a ridiculous stash. I mean it. Totally ridiculous.
My second attempt is with Classic Elite Alpaca Sox held double, and I adore it. Pics soon!
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