Ric-Rac Panthers Fan Messy-Bun Earflap Beanie

The football team at our hometown high school, the Perry Panthers, has school colors of maroon and gold. They also have white away-game jerseys, and also alternate uniforms that are primarily black. I'm trying to utilize all of those colors in this hat.

Previous times when I've made this Messy-Bun Earflap Beanie (or the regular hat style), it has been using a combination of three colors. This time I'm attempting to make it using four colors. I sketched out several different stripe arrangements before settling on this configuration. I think it works pretty well at incorporating all four colors while still keeping the maroon and gold as the dominant colors.

Let's go, Panthers!!! 2023 GHSA 4A Football champions!

 

Ric-Rac UGA Fan Messy Bun Beanie

Ever since I made one of these beanies for my grandniece Jill almost four years ago, I've been wanting to make one for myself in a messy-bun style (open top). So when Jill's mom, my niece Renee, announced that she would be hosting a party to celebrate the kickoff of Georgia's new football season, I knew that now was the time to grab my yarn and get hooking on this essential accessory. GOOOOOO Dawgs! Sic 'em! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! 🏈

I used scraps of yarn I had in my stash to make this, so, naturally, I ran out of the main red color when I was stitching the brim. I switched to another scrap of red that was a fairly close match to the first red, but there is a tiny bit of difference in the colors. But since this hat is for me, I'm OK with that. 😊

The hat works up quickly, and the cluster V-stitch is super easy while giving the stripes their distinct "ric-rac" look. I use this tutorial on YouTube by Hooked by Robin whenever I need a refresher on how to work the cluster V-stitch. The design is great for showing off the colors of any fandom, and the slouchy, stretchy nature of the beanie is amazingly comfortable for all-game-day wear. The 5/6 ribbed brim in alternating FPDC/BPDC stitches also provides complete, cozy coverage of your ears, which is wonderful on windy autumn/winter game days.

As you can tell by my latest posts, I'm on a beanie-making kick lately, thanks to the approach of fall, my favoritest season in the whole, wide world!! Plus, most crochet hats work up super fast, so it doesn't take long to have your latest favorite hat ready to wear. 

And because crochet hats work up quickly, it also means that I can usually finish one before the arthritis in my hands forces me to take a break from stitching. 👍

 

 

Tendril Shawl

The pattern for this Tendril Shawl is available for free on the designer Carmen Heffernan's blog. She also provides a video tutorial that walks you through the setup rows and the first couple of pattern repeats, which is very helpful for getting this project started.

I made mine at a heavier gauge than the original pattern calls for, but it worked out well and produced a lovely shawl/wrap/scarf. My yarn is Hobby Lobby I Love This Cotton in the Emerald Pine colorway, which is labeled as a 4 weight, and I'm using a 5.5 mm hook. I had a few skeins of this colorway left over from my Dressy Swingy Shawlivest project, and I thought they would look good being worked into the Tendril Shawl design. This yarn looks and feels more like a 3 weight despite the fact that it's labeled a 4 weight, and the cotton is so soft and smooth that it's a pleasure to work with.

Finished with gothpixy's edging

I love the sawtooth edge and the beautiful lacy-ness of this shawl. The project grows quickly, which is satisfying, and the four-row repeat becomes fairly intuitive after you've worked it a few times.

Finished size

The only downside to using this particular yarn is that the skeins are pretty short at only 153 yards each, so I was worried I might not have enough yardage on hand to make a full size shawl. The first skein ran out at the beginning of row 36. 

End of first skein

The second skein ran out after making it most of the way across row 52.

End of second skein

My third skein ran out almost at the end of row 64. Thankfully, I had another skein available to finish that row and continue, because the top edge of my shawl was only about 64 inches long at that point. I used the fourth skein to work another two "points" and then do the edging row.

End of third skein

I started working the picot edging row as written in the pattern, but I felt that it was coming out too tight, so I searched through the Tendril Shawl project gallery page until I found gothpixy's project.

Gothpixy suggested an alternate way to work the picot edging that I ended up using for my project. I like their edging better for two reasons: One, it provides a lovely bumpy, wavy edging that finishes the edge really well with an easier method than working traditional picots. And two, it utilizes an extra chain stitch between each bump, so the edging doesn't tighten the edge in the same way that the original pattern's edging row was doing for me. You should check out gothpixy's project to see if maybe you might like their edging better, too!

Getting started

The designer says the finished fingering-weight samples she made measure about 70 inches (178 cm) on the long top edge after 64 rows (65 rows with the final edging applied), which is 16 "points" on the bottom edge, and 32 inches (82 cm) tall/deep on the border edge after blocking. 

I crocheted mine to 18 points, or 72 rows, plus the edging row. My shawl's total length is about 72 inches before blocking.

V-stitch Headband a favorite free pattern

I've actually made this pattern several times. It's a great headband with lovely texture, quick and easy to make. Love it.

BUT ... several years after I first discovered her lovely V-Stitch Headband pattern Juli Chu unfortunately at some point took down her blog and stopped sharing the pattern. AUGH!!!

I tried to send Juli a message through Ravelry to ask if she'd still be willing to share her pattern but got an error saying she had turned off the messaging system. So that was a dead end.

Then I wrote to Tim of manmadecreationz to ask if he might have saved a copy of Juli's pattern, since he has project pages on Ravelry showing that he had made the headband several times. Unfortunately I didn't hear back from Tim.

I even tried using the Internet Wayback Machine to see if it would recover the pattern page from Juli's blog, but no luck there, either.

It really distressed me to think I'd never be able to make this headband again, so I took it upon myself to reverse engineer Juli's pattern from one of the existing headbands I had made ... because I LOVE this headband, and I just didn't want to leave it behind forever. Out of all the eleventy-bazillion headbands I've made over the years, I only love the Chic Aran Headband just a tiny bit more than this one. So this one is still strongly in second place in my list of favorites, and I just had to find a way to make it again.
 

V-stitch Headband Re-created

5mm hook
Worsted/Aran yarn
V-stitch: In st indicated - DC, ch 1, DC.
 

Row 1: Starting with a long tail below your slipknot (you can use this length to sew the button on later), FHDC 3. Ch 1; turn. (3 HDC)

Row 2: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (4 HDC)

Row 3: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (5 HDC)

Row 4: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (6 HDC)

Row 5: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (7 HDC)

Row 6: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (8 HDC)

Row 7: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (9 HDC)

Row 8: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 1; turn. (10 HDC)

Row 9: 2 HDC in first st; HDC to end of row. Ch 2; turn. (11 HDC)

Now we will begin the V-stitch section.

Row 10: DC in first st; [V-stitch in next st; DC in next st]. Repeat [] to last st; DC. Ch 2; turn. (6 DCs and 5 V-stitches)

Row 11: DC in first st; [DC in next ch space from V-stitch in row below; V-stitch in next DC from row below]. Repeat [] until 2 sts remain; DC in last 2 sts. Ch 2; turn. (7 DCs and 4 V-stitches)

Row 12: DC in first st; [V-stitch in next DC from row below; DC in next ch space from V-stitch in row below]. Repeat [] to last st; DC. Ch 2; turn. (6 DCs and 5 V-stitches) 

Repeat rows 11 and 12 until headband length measures about 18 inches, then begin decreases to buttonhole.

I JUST CAN'T GET THE V-STITCH SECTION TO LOOK THE SAME AS JULI DID!!! CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP?!? 😭