Taylor's Beanie

When Taylor Swift wore that crocheted beanie to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play football with the Kansas City Chiefs, all of the online yarnie groups went BA-NA-NAS with people wanting to know how to make the same hat. It's the Taylor Effect, y'all.

Anyway, if you love a Swiftie, like I do, then you simply MUST make them one of these beanies. It works up quickly with simple stitches, so it's an easy project that will bring a huge thrill to your Swiftie's heart, because in no time at all they will be able to rock this hat just like Taylor did.

To replicate Taylor's look, it's important to use a bright white yarn for the main color and a rich, vibrant red with blue undertones for the stripe.

You will notice that I have the jersey number "wrong" on the beanie I made. That's because my Swiftie also loves a football player, and he happens to wear jersey number 84 (whereas Travis Kelce wears number 87). 

For the fur pom, I found an affordable pack of faux-fur poms on Amazon.

Photo showing Taylor's faux fur pompom

I am working on writing this pattern, which will be available as a free download on Ravelry. I will link to the pattern page here once it's available. Ravelry pattern link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/taylors-beanie-3

 

Etsy vs. Ravelry

In creative circles, there is an ongoing debate about which online platform is best for selling patterns: Etsy or Ravelry. And more sites are regularly coming online to also try to grab a piece of the action, such as Ribblr, LoveCrafts, Ko-fi, and more. 

As a pattern designer, I have used both Etsy and Ravelry to sell patterns, so I can speak to this debate from the viewpoint of having used both. 

Etsy charges sellers a fee for their listings (and the listings expire and have to be renewed every X number of days, which means you pay the listing fee again) whether you sell anything or not. Ravelry doesn't charge listing fees, and your listings never expire; it only charges you a fee when you make a sale. Depending on your individual needs and goals, there are different advantages and disadvantages to each platform, so the answer of which platform is best is entirely dependent upon your particular situation. There is no one-size-fits-all best answer.

Mini Dino in chenille

These adorable mini dinos are so fun and fast and easy to make. The free pattern is Mini Dino by MerryMakes. A member of my family gifted me this skein of bulky chenille yarn, so naturally I had to see how this pattern would work up in the bulky yarn using an 8mm hook. (There wasn't a label on the skein, so I don't know what brand or colorway this yarn is.)

For the eyes I used a pair of 20mm black buttons from this set I found on Amazon. 

This mini dino is made by following the same pattern as the smaller dinos, same stitch and row counts. The only difference is the size of the yarn and hook, which produced a dinosaur about 12 inches tall.

But it fits!

This meme by Nicki of Nicki's Homemade Crafts made both me and my husband laugh out loud. Too funny!

Giant Timothy T-rex

I had this one skein of colorful Red Heart Super Saver Color Block yarn in the Party Time colorway that I wanted to use to make something for Rose. Orange is featured prominently in the colorful skein, and orange is one of Rose's favorite colors. 

At first I tried to see if there was enough yarn to make something to wear, like a "Housecoat of Many Colors" sort of thing. But the one skein wasn't enough for that, and apparently the colorway was discontinued, so I couldn't buy more.

Not enough yarn to make a cardigan or blanket

So then I had another idea: Why not make a giant Timothy T-rex for Rose by holding the colorful yarn double with a neutral gray and using an 8mm hook? And that's how this giant Timothy was born. 

Timothy and friends

The pattern specifies to use 10mm safety eyes, but I didn't have any safety eyes on hand, so I used two 25mm black buttons from this kit that I found on Amazon. It has black buttons in a bunch of different sizes, so they are useful for lots of various projects. So far I have used these buttons for eyes on a few recent amigurumis: my Zoey Zebra and also my Halloween Melly Teddy Ragdolls Gabby Ghost and Bobby Bat.

Holding the two colors of yarn together and working at this large gauge with an 8mm hook, my finished Timothy stands about 15 inches tall. I hope he will make a nice, snuggly companion for Rose!