Pink Sands Tote & Hat & Nautical Child Hat

[JillD]

This is my first show and tell and I think I managed to resize the photo correctly (if not, I will try again).

 

I made the Pink Sands Tote & Hat (in blue) for my 10-year-old niece for her birthday and the smaller Nautical Child Hat for her 3-year-old sister for her birthday. The stiches in both of the hat patterns are the same.

 

Both patterns are from crochetgarden.com. The patterns were easy to follow and everything worked up fairly quickly.

 

I lined the bottom of the tote with plastic canvas, which was optional (and I would recommend doing that or the bottom of the bag would be kind of "droopy"). The bag turned out larger than stated in the pattern, I think it was closer to 14" wide rather than 12" wide, but I can never crochet to gauge and I liked the larger size because she hopefully can fit a towel in the bag and other beach stuff.

 

 

[Gardener]

Nice job. I like the blue and white combination, It looks fresh and cool.

[crochetbycharlene]

Wonderful!

[Evelyn1]

Beautiful, love it and the colors..

[Monique39]

beautiful!

[Craw]

Yours came out very nice! I really like the blue/white combo. I have that pattern as well and I've only made the hat so far, not the tote yet. I found the hat pattern very difficult to follow. Mine came out waaaaaay too big even though I did a gauge swatch beforehand and hit gauge. Did you use the Cotton Tots yarn or some other cotton? I'm going to try it again with a smaller hook and a sturdier cotton yarn. I used the Cotton Tots and I found that to be too soft and not enough body for a hat. Though I did like working with the Cotton Tots. Would be excellent for baby blankets.

[JillD]

My guage swatches did not turn out for the pattern. As I recall, my problem was that regardless of what hook I used, the stitch height was the same (too short). I asked the moderator of the pattern about this and she told me to go with the hook size that gave me the correct stitch width because I could always do more rows.

 

The only problem I had with the instructions for the hat was the part about marking the stitch at the beginning of the row when you start to work in the round. I thought I was suppose to move the stitch marker up to the row I was working on, but I figured out that was wrong when I noticed that the "beginning stitch" of each round moved over when working in the round. (I have no idea if that makes sense or not).

 

The hardest thing about the tote was doing the first round on the sides. The directions are clear, but I did not understand how it "worked" and confused myself. Once I did it, it was clear, and if you have already done the hat, it probably would make sense to you (I made the bag first).

 

I did not use cottontots (the recommended yarn) because I couldn't find it. I used Lily Sugar'n Cream in white and cornflower blue. I used more than the pattern stated, but, as I said, the bag turned out larger so that would be expected. I have read that cottontots has less stretch than other cotton yarn, so that would probably be a better yarn for the bag (the handles on mine had a lot of "give.")

[SHERYL]

Beautiful bag and hats - lovely colors.

[Bubbazmama]

Very nice...

[Craw]

The only problem I had with the instructions for the hat was the part about marking the stitch at the beginning of the row when you start to work in the round. I thought I was suppose to move the stitch marker up to the row I was working on, but I figured out that was wrong when I noticed that the "beginning stitch" of each round moved over when working in the round. (I have no idea if that makes sense or not).

 

This makes MUCHO sense and is probably where I started messing up, and why, when I tried to end the hat, it looked weird. It wasn't the end of the row! Thanks for the tip.

[cher49]

nice tote and pretty hats..

[umme yusuf]

beautiful, lovely colors!

[misssmaggie]

The are adorable !!! Thanks for sharing !!!

[carovan]

Those turned out wonderful...I really like the blue and white combo.

[oliveoil]

Wow!! The tote and hats came out really nice!! (I bought the patterns for the pink sands tote and hat SOME TIME AGO:blush, but never sat down to make them, dh tells me I have too many "irons in the fire"!!

[yarncat]

Handsome!