Dusting off the crochet hooks

As you have probably figured out, most of the crafting I do right now is knitting. It's very relaxing, and with everything being made of 2 different stitches it's easy to do when you have so much on your mind (Thanksgiving preparations, Christmas gifts to make, Christmas decorating to do, etc.). Every now and then, I like to use my crochet skills on some project that really catches my eye.

Crocheting is a little bit harder to memorize than knitting, with all the different stitches to make the different patterns...I usually forget them by the time I do another crochet project and have to pull out my handy-dandy Crochet Answer book. Well, I've decided that now is the time for me to dust off my hooks and books and work on Lidsville from the Son of Stitch 'n Bitch book as a gift for my uncle. I absolutely love flat hats, and when I was looking through my books and patterns for men this was the one that won out for my Uncle Joel.

I don't know what it is, but for some reason I love to crochet hats. The projects seem to go so much faster, and usually look so seamless. This hat is a little different, but so far I'm loving working on it. It's crocheted in many pieces and then you slip stitch the pieces together, but that makes it a perfect crochet-on-the-go project. I've got my yarn (Shamrock by Knit Picks) in a small project bag, along with the pieces that I've already finished.

I started working on some of the pieces Monday night while watching Heroes, and with a little bit of crochet time here and there I've already got about half of the hat pieces complete. This is definitely the type of encouragement I needed with my Christmas gift list, because I was starting to wonder how I could get hats, scarves, gloves, dolls and needle felting all done before Christmas day. If things keep going at this rate, I could have it done by the weekend and ready to show off on the blog and Ravelry!

Well I better head back to the hooks and books!