Weekend blog catchup

I'll start with the boxes that I fixed up the other day, these are quite light and flimsy but the idea is that they only have to hold some crocheted flowers and some photo cards at the car-boot as a pretty display feature so they should just about last out until then.

Yesterday I had a bit of a wool clear out and found some odds and ends, one or two balls only - which is just enough to start on a hat and with it raining instead of the sunny forecast they misled me with, I started on the hat in the morning.

Using a thick chunky chenille wool, and with two needles (size 6.5), I cast on 78 stitches, then knit 2 purl 2 in row 1, p2 k 2 in row 2, k2 p2 in row 3, continuing until you have 6 inches of hat knitted, then start decreasing, starting with k2tog, p2, in next two rows, then k2 tog p1 k2 tog in each row until you are left with 7 stitches, draw the wool through the stitches and either use the wool or a mathing cotton to sew the sides together. Because the initial casting on was on two needles, you can now give that row of stitches a quick tug, and it will fold in on itself to create a beret style. I finished one ball of the chenille wool on Saturday, and because this wool is lovely and thick the easiest way to join the two ends together is with a bit of cotton, sew through the centre of the wool and join to the next skein for a smooth continuation with no knots.