The hat that grew itself.

The latest hat I just finished crocheting kind of grew itself. I had no idea that I was even making something when I started...
You see, my sister gave me a freeform crochet book for Christmas and I didn't really have any idea what to try making so I just grabbed some random wool from my bag to try out some of the cool motif patterns.
All the stuff I crochet is kind of free-form because I don't follow patterns but make it up as I go but I haven't done any real free-form (actually I prefer to call it free-stylin' crochet lol) since I made this poncho for Mr T when he was a baby.

I started making some free form patterns, some odd shapes and triangles and then tried a few spirals. I LOVED making the spirals and got carried away making all different sizes and colours.

So I started thinking about joining them all together and seeing what I could create.

The result was a strip of spirals and circles that were about long enough to go around a head. I crocheted the crown of a beanie and sewed the pieces onto it. Then filled in the gaps with more crocheted circles.

The end result looked pretty funky but I decided I wanted to define some of the spirals a bit more and embroidered more spirals in 2ply cotton... and got carried away and embroidered many more spirals...

My embroidery skills are not the greatest, I stuck to chain stitch because it is about one of the only stitches I know. When I was reading my wonderful friend Char's blog over here at Begborosteel yesterday, I laughed at her description of her "caveman" quality embroidery...I can totally relate to that.

So here's the hat, I'm not sure if it is even finished yet, I might add some beads and tassels to it to make it even more over the top.

Which brings me to the much procrastinated task of packing away my craft supplies for when we move... I've already packed my sewing machine and some bits and pieces but it is so hard to work out which yarns I can't live without for a month. And I keep putting it off because I just need it all accessible just so I can make one-more-thing...
I guess I'll do it eventually, perhaps as the removal truck is pulling into the driveway :P