Book Reviews Crochet

A super sized, chunky crochet beanie

I appear to be having a crochet themed October…

I have been sewing but mainly for work. It is busy time of the yearfor me I can often feel pressured and stressed, with sleepless nights ensuing. Therefore when I am at home relaxing, I prefer to take a rest from sewing and not even think about the ‘s’ word. Crochet clears my mind, helps me unwind and de-stress at the end of a hard days sew.

My latest crochet obsession is super chunky yarn and gigantic wooden hooks. I have also started a list of Christmas gifts to make.

I recently received a 15mm hook* and some adorably soft and oh so chunky yarn* from the-stitchery in Lewes Just look at the goodies that came in the parcel: sweets I love sweets! especially those pink and white gummy ones. How did they know? it must be magic!

The yarn is Bergere de france and the colour is called Bisqu, the composition is wool, acrylic and some recycled yarn so its eco friendly super chunky yarn. It is also a very reasonable price at 4.95 per 100g ball… win win!

I began to experiment with different size hooks but using the same stitch and number of rows, look at the results…the top row was hooked up using a size 20mm hook, the middle was a 15mm hook and the bottom example was hooked up with a size 8mm.

Armed with the results from my stitches experiment I needed an adaptable pattern, one that I could ‘scale up’ and one that would suit a super chunky yarn. I found my answer in Kat Goldin’s superb Book: ‘Hook Stitch and Give’ (planning some ‘man crochet’ from it soon)

This is the finished result a ‘Super Chunky Beanie for me…I only hooked 3 rows of ribbing and used only two trebles instead of three (if you have made this already you will know what I mean)
I used almost 2 balls of the Bergere de France and mixed in some Sirdar chunky super soft yarn for the accent colour and the pom pom. The Total cost less than £14 ! i am keeping this one but planning another for a friend (shhhhh)