My entry for the 2013 Hottie Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

I posted my hottie off to Cam yesterday, just in time for the Thursday cut off date this week for the 2013 Hottie Challenge!  It was not an easy road!!!  I planned to whip up some wee granny squares, seamlessly join them into a hot water bottle cover and send it on it's way within days.  Except those little squares take longer than you think.  Sewing in those pesky ends was painful.  Seamlessly joining teeny squares is not straightforward and if I dared to show you the other side of my work you would die laughing at how messy it looked!

 

 

My first attempt at joining them made all the wee squares stick up like bubbles.  It was annoying and frustrating since they are so fidgety to put together!

 

 

So of course I pulled them all apart and let them sit on the desk in my craftroom for a month!

 

 

When I attempted it again it was with a calmer frame of mind and a looser hand and hook!  I may also have sat some heavy books on top of it all to flatten it down a wee bit (a very technical crochet process!!!).  I left the top and bottom open so it could potentially fit a real hot water bottle and be used for what it was intended for!

 

(still a bit to pouffy for my liking!)

 

On the back is a plain white granny stripe right up to the neck.  I slip stitched the front and back together inside out so all the messy bits are nicely hidden away before I turned it back out to the right side!

 

 

 

I'm happier with the finished product than I thought I would be.  I love the colours and I think it looks a wee bit like a granny square blanket that your nanna might have made you... soft, squishy, cosy and warm. Just what you need in a hot water bottle cover! 

To see some beautiful, super creative hot water bottle covers pop over to Curlypops blog or instagram feed and search under #hottiechallenge2013. 

All hot water bottle covers will be displayed at Opendrawer's Gallery from Friday July 5th to Sunday July 28th.  The address is 1158 Toorak Road, Camberwell in Victoria.  They are then sold to raise money for the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust.

 

*giant doily cork board from Typo

 

 

 

 

My creative space...

I made a beanie.  With granny trebles.  And no pattern.  Why have I not done this before? 
So super easy.

 

Prompted by a chilly morning at under 9 football on Sunday where many a mum was adorned with some kind of furry, puffy, vesty/jackety number, scarf and woolly headpiece, I felt the need to join the group... (although I vow to never venture into a puffy anything!  So not flattering... on me anyway!)

 

I can't believe how easy this was and how quickly it comes together.  And although I made a few little errors which required some undoing and redoing, it used only a ball or so of wool. 

(Initially I tried to add ear flappy bits with plaited ties hanging off them but then it dawned on me that I am not a 17 year old babe waiting on the beach for my surfie boyfriend to return from the waves and join me!)

 

 

The Pattern.... (I'm assuming you have some crochet knowledge!)

 

Chain  5 or 6 and join with a slip stitch to the starting chain.

Double crochet 12 times into the ring and slip stitch to close.

Treble into each previous double crochet adding some space between these trebles by chaining two or three.  Join with a slip stitch.
 

In the next round, three chain and two trebles into the first space, and then three trebles into each space after that.  Join with a slip stitch into the third chain of your three chain starting point.

So your beanie doesn't start folding in too early, increase your rounds slowly and keep testing it out on your own head.  Initially I increased by adding a few chains between each set of three trebles.  Then increased some more by doing two lots of three trebles with a chain in between in each alternate space of the round.  I did an increase round, then a non increase round 2 or 3 times till I felt it was going to be wide enough to fit my moon head.
 

Eventually you will end up doing those three lots of trebles into each space with maybe a chain between each set 9-10 times till it comes far enough down your head.  To finish I used a different colour and did three rows of double crochet around the edge.  I may well add a pom pom!

 

Take it out onto your front porch and take 22 selfies before you find one that you are vaguely less critical of.  Muck around with it on instagram until you find the most flattering filter while your internal self continues to berate your moon head, the bags under your eyes,  pointy chin and puppet lined mouth.

 

Enjoy at a cold under 9's football match where you lose count of how many times your child pulls up their socks and repeatedly removes their mouthguard... while only touching the actual football twice.