Owl Hat from two patterns Crochet by Darleen Hopkins

Stash Busting for Hope – Challenge Update and ALMOST DONE!

Posted on December 31, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Busting for Halos of Hope, 2013 Wrap Up

It’s been a year now that I have been working on my 6 pounds of Bernat CottonTots yarn stash-6 pounds!!!! There was so much yarn in the box (a standard paper box) that the lid didn’t close properly. Why I had that much yarn, I have no clue. But I had it and I decided to spend 2013 crocheting it into soft hats for Halos of Hope. Hats were crocheted that looked like frogs, sharks, pigs, owls, bunnies, chicks, baby birds, fish, cats and a cartoon character. I also made hats with hearts, flowers, stripes, swirls and stars. And a few solid hats as well. It’s been both a joy and a challenge to find the right pattern for the yarn on hand. Especially towards the end of the challenge when I had less full skeins and lots of partial and small bits of yarn. Being true to my thrifty self, I have been determined to use every last bit of yarn, even those scraps no bigger than a yard or two.
Over November and December I made 7 hats. I used the last full skein on the Yellow Kitty Hat. The remaining hats were made with partial skeins and the small leftovers.

The Owl Hat is one of my favorites. For the owl features I followed the Owl Bib pattern and for the hat, I followed the Crazy Frog Hat pattern (psssst! That pattern is FREE with every Crochet by Darleen Hopkins pattern purchase.)

The Pink Heart Hat and the Blue/Green/Purple Striped Hat are both based on the Crazy Frog Hat pattern as well. I just changed color as I ran out of yarn. The cute heart is a pattern by Jill Gilbank and you can find it on her website, PlanetJune.

Both the Blue/Brown Swirl Hat and the Pastel Stripes were patterns I was just playing around with, possible prototypes for future Crochet by Darleen Hopkins patterns!

The last, the adorable striped hat with the huge flower, is an adaptation of the Daisy Hat pattern by Akua Lezli Hope. I had to adapt it a little for the heavier weight yarn. I love how it came out and I’m excited to one day make the hat as the pattern is written and in a lighter weight yarn.

Shortly after starting the draft of this post, I found out about Halos of Hope’s-Stripe It Up January. I guess I had a Stripe It Up December. Stripes are a great way to use leftover yarn.
In just 3 easy steps you can use up those last little bits of yarn and make a hat that costs nothing.
1. Group scraps that go well together.
2. Follow a hat pattern you like.
3. Change color when you run out of yarn. It is that easy!

Got Scraps? Join Halos of Hope this January and Stripe It Up! See Hat Guidelines for more information.

The Final Stash Bust Countdown

November and December’s 7 hats weigh in at 1 pound 1 1/2 ounces.

Total hats made in the 2013 Stash Bust Challenge: 32!

Total weight of the 32 hats made: 5 pounds 15 1/2 ounces!

I am JUST UNDER 6 pounds! I don’t have enough yarn left for any more hats but I do have some ideas for what is left. So, I’ll have one last post in this challenge! Please check back. : )

Stash Bust 2013 Update: October

Posted on October 20, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Busting for Hope: October 2013

I can’t believe I can actually see the bottom of the bin I am using to store the yarn for the Stash Bust Challenge, 2013-Stash Busting for Hope. I’m down to 2 full skeins and a lot of partial skeins. Get ready to start seeing some multi-colored hats and lots of stripes for next month! I spent the last week working on a few hats and I have 4 to share for October.

The first are my bunny hats. I made two of these but only photographed one. I love dress up, for Halloween or for just being silly and since bunny rabbits aren’t just for Easter, I hope these cuties will make a little one fighting cancer smile and engage in some pretend play. This pattern is now available on my FreeCrochetPatternsByDarleen.blogspot site.

The third hat is from my Stars and Flowers Slouch Hat pattern and is available as a Ravelry download.

The last is a hat pattern I found on Ravelry as a free download, The Seed Stitch Beret, by Jessica Lombard. It’s a nice pattern but written for bulky yarn. My stash bust yarn isn’t bulky so I made some adjustments. I prefer when patterns give gauge or check point measurements. Unfortunately, this pattern didn’t and my adjustments weren’t enough to make it beret style. In addition, I ran out of yarn and couldn’t make it any bigger. So, it’s more of a beanie style. I’d like to give the pattern another try at some point with either bulky yarn or more available yarn.

The four hats weigh in at 13 ounces and I’m mailing them with my September addition and the Baby Birds from August to Halos of Hope and Drew Emborsky’s aka The Crochet Dude (tm) 2013 Chemo Cap Challenge.

Total hats made in this 2013 Stash Bust Challenge to date: 25

Total weight of hats made: 4 pounds 14 ounces

Stash Bust Challenge 2013-Update Sept 2013

Posted on October 5, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Bust Challenge 2013, September Update

Textured Halos of Hope Hat, pattern by Yvonne Tate

September was a busy month. I’ve been working on two blanket designs, both of which I hit a snag in the design and had to work it out. Because of this, I fell behind in my other projects and only made 1 hat in my Stash Bust Challenge for this month. But I really like this one. This design was written by Yvonne Tate, specifically for Halos of Hope. You can find it on her blog. I used a thicker yarn than the pattern calls for so I made few adjustments and ended up with a slightly slouchy hat rather than the beanie as the pattern is written. You can see my notes on my Ravelry project page. I’m real pleased with the results. It’s a cute hat pattern. Thanks Yvonne!

The hat used almost an entire 3.5oz skein of yarn. I’ve got 3 months left in this challenge and 2 pounds to go. I gotta get stitchin’!

Total hats made to date: 21

Total yarn used to date: 4 lbs 1 oz

Stash Bust Challenge Update – June/July 2013 Catch Up

Posted on September 2, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Bust Challenge 2013 Update – June/July Catch Up

Chirp! Chirp! Tweet! Tweet!

As I mentioned in my last update, I feel behind in my stash busting for June and July. I made lots of hats for donation, just not with this type of yarn. So I vowed to make up for it in August-and I did. The last week of August was busy. I wrote up a new pattern, had it tested by the fantastic testers in the Happy Hooker group on Ravelry and made 5 myself! Phew!!

You can find this adorable (if I do say so myself) pattern – Chirp! Chirp! Tweet! Tweet! as well as the inspiration behind it, on my new site-Free Crochet Patterns by Darleen (www.FreeCrochetPatternsByDarleen.blogspot.com). This is where I’ll be posting, um, if you can guess by the name, free crochet patterns. Please note, this is a different site from this blog so if you subscribe to this blog and want to receive notification of the new patterns there, you will also need to subscribe to that one. (The links are posted on the bottom sidebar for RSS feed or email notification)

These 5 cuties will be going out with my next batch to Halos of Hope. The 5 hats weigh in at 12.5 ounces.

Total Stash Bust Yarn Used To Date: Almost 4 lbs. (3 lbs, 14 ounces)

Total Stash Bust Hats Made To Date: 20

Stash Bust Challenge Update: Aug. 2013

Posted on August 4, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

WHOooo’s Stash Busting?

I fell a little behind in my stash busting for June and July. Although I made a lot of hats for Halos of Hope, I didn’t use the Bernat CottonTots in my Stash Bust Challenge. I plan to make up for it this month. I have a current design I’m working on and a magazine deadline (yeah!) to meet, but I hope to squeeze in a couple more hats this month. I did spend this weekend working on two cuties. The design is from Sarah Zimmerman and you can get the pattern here: Crochet Owl Hat. I made some modifications to the hat design to make it work with my smaller scrap pieces (you can see my notes here). Overall, I’m real pleased. It’s a fun, quick hat to make. Together, they weigh in at 4 1/2 ounces.

Total Stash Bust Yarn Used to Date: Just over 3 pounds! Officially 1/2 way done!

Total Stash Bust Hats Made to Date: 15

Stash Bust Update: April/May 2013

Posted on May 30, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Bust Update, April and May 2013

When I sat down to write this I realized I didn’t post an update for April. I guess it’s because although I made a lot of hats for Halos of Hope in April, I didn’t make any hats out of my Bernat Cottontots stash. But I do have 3 Stash Bust hats for May.

First, Hooper the Shark. I love this pattern by Monica Miles. She designed it for Halos of Hope and you can own it with a $10 donation to this great charity. The money goes directly to them and is used to pay for postage in shipping their hats. I made a couple adjustments to the pattern for worsted/aran yarn (it’s written for bulky). You can see my adjustments on my Ravelry project page. And if you have friends who knit, they have a knitted version as well!

My second hat is Oink! I made this one on the bus going to and from my youngest son’s field trip. We had a nice day-went to Chattanooga, TN and saw Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall and went to the aquarium. Three hours on the bus each way and I had more than enough time to finish this cutie.

My last one to share with you is a bucket style hat. I was playing around yarn and didn’t follow a pattern. It came out kinda cute. There may be a Bucket Hat pattern in the future…

The 3 hats together weigh in at exactly 12 ounces.

Total Stash Bust Yarn Weight to Date: just under 3 pounds! (almost 1/2 way!!)

Total Stash Bust Hat Count to Date: 13

And for kicks and giggles, here’s a photo of Ruby Falls. : 0 )

Stash Bust Update-March 2013

Posted on March 10, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Busting for Hope, Update March 2013

Phew! It’s been a busy month and it’s only the 10th! I spent this last week finishing up a few hats I had started but hadn’t gotten around to completing. My incentive was to get the Kissy Fish Hats out to Halos of Hope ASAP. I also heard about a little girl in Michigan who could use a few hats. This is what was written about her on a facebook page I stumbled upon.

(From Debbie Fry Kruse via Crochet Club Facebook Page)
This is Kaelee, (on the right) and her twin sister. She is in the 3rd grade. Kaelee just had to shave her head as she is fighting cancer. She is from a small town and I’d like to show her no one fights alone! Her teacher will post pictures of the hats from around the world! If you would like to send a hat to her at school, the address is: Hopkins Elementary School, 400 Clark St., Hopkins, MI 49328 attn: Heather Fuss

and this article about an upcoming fund-raiser for her family.

So this month, two of my Stash Busting for Hope hats will go to Kaelee (green with flowers and pink stripes with heart) and two (fish) of my hats will go to Halos of Hope. The four hats together weigh in at 13 ounces.

Total Stash Bust Yarn Weight to Date: just over 2 pounds! (1/3 done!!)

Total Stash Bust Hat Count to Date: 10

Stash Bust Update – Feb. 2013 Stash Busting for Hope

Posted on February 28, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Busting for Hope, Update – Feb. 2013

Kissy! Kissy! Fish Face Hat.

This month I have one hat to share in my Stash Bust Challenge-the Kissy! Kissy! Fish Face Hat. This is a new pattern of mine. I was able to make one this month with my CottonTots weighing in at 2.75 ounces putting my total yarn usage to 1 1/4 pounds. (I promise to have more to share next month as I have 4 hats about 90% complete.) This cutie pie will be donated to Halos of Hope for their Stitches South Under the Sea for the Kids in Atlanta collection.

If interested, you can find the Kissy! Kissy! Fish Face Hat on Etsy, Ravelry and Craftsy!

Stash Bust 2013 – update January

Posted on January 19, 2013 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

A Flapper, Patrick Star and a Frog

I’ve been steadily working on my Bernat CottonTots 100% cotton yarn stash. This month I have three hats to share with you.

Waiting for Spring Flapper Hat

The first is the Waiting for Spring, Flapper hat. This is the first hat pattern I designed and offered for sale and have not made it in a long time. While I was working on it, my husband said “going Old School on this one, huh?” It’s an adorable hat and I guess I need to make it more often! I made an XL which should fit most 3 yr. to small adult heads.

Silly Hat

The second hat is my latest release, the Silly Hat. It looks a little bit like my favorite starfish, Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants. Patrick is such a goofball; no wonder SpongeBob is best buddies with him. It is a version of the Candy Corn Hat. This is a medium (most 3-6 yr. old children). It’s too tight for my almost 11-year-old to wear so it should be perfect for a younger child.

Crazy Frog Hat

The last is my buddy, the Crazy Frog hat. This pattern is included free with every one of Crochet by Darleen Hopkins patterns I sell (Ravelry, Etsy and Craftsy); just an extra bonus and thank you for your purchase! I made a small/medium to fit most 3-6 yr. old kids.

I’m saving these three to donate to Halos of Hope when they arrive in Atlanta for Stitches South. They are collecting regular and sea themed hats to benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – Egleston & Scottish Rite and will be distributing them that same weekend.

My three hats weigh in just over 9 ounces. Add this to the two I donated in December to Halos of Hope, New England Chapter and that’s a little over 1 pound (so far) of CottonTots crocheted into soft hats for Halos of Hope! Five pounds to go! : )

Stash Bust 2013-update Dec.

Posted on December 26, 2012 by CrochetByDarleenHopkins

Stash Bust Update!

I’ve been steadily working on my 6 pounds of Bernat Cottontots for my Stash Bust Challenge, 2013. I have two hats complete weighing just over 1/2 lb, only 5 1/2 pounds to go!! The two pink hats will go to Halos of Hope, New England Chapter. Erin has partnered with Halos of Hope to serve centers in the New England area. She is trying to collect 50 pink adult (female) hats by Feb. 1st, 2013. I hope these two will bring comfort to a couple awesome ladies.

The Slouchy Newsboy Hat (bottom) is a pattern by Eileen Tepper and the other Cubed Slouch Hat (top) is a pattern I’m working on. All I have to do now is tag these two with yarn details and send them off!

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Category Archives: 2013 Chemo Hat Challenge