Monday, March 2, 2015

Happy National Crochet Month 2015!

Wow! I can hardly believe it is this time of year again already! I hope everyone has a lot of fun events and activities planned to celebrate National Crochet Month! I would first like to thank Amy Shelton and Donna Hulka, owners of Crochetville for once again hosting this incredible blog tour! I love to read all of the wonderful entries and this year there will be more free patterns and prizes than ever before! Thank you to Red Heart Yarns for sponsoring the great giveaways! You can find the complete list of participants right here!

One great way to celebrate National Crochet Month is by joining the Crochet Guild of America! There are so many benefits to being a member of CGOA; you can find just a few of the top reasons here. The picture below is from our Summer conference last year in Manchester, New Hampshire! Pictured is Jenny King, Amy Shelton, myself and Marcy Smith. We have so much fun and I have learned so much with incredible volunteer opportunities. I am currently serving my second term as Vice President of this wonderful organization. Find out how you too can become involved.


Another great way to celebrate is to pay it forward and share your gift of crochet by bringing love and comfort to someone in need. We will once again be supporting Halos of Hope which is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization committed to providing volunteer-crafted hats to cancer centers across the country. Founder and executive director, Pam Haschke, is a cancer survivor and you can find all the details of their program on their site. I am offering a free hat pattern in celebration of National Crochet Month and I ask that you make a hat or two (or as many as you are able) and send to Halos of Hope! There are also many knit and crochet patterns offered on their site and they also accept donations to help cover the expenses of shipping the hats!


Whatever you do to celebrate, just be sure you ARE celebrating and sharing the love of crochet! Teach someone to crochet, gift your projects, send some yarn and patterns in a random act of kindness to someone in need, just celebrate!

And be sure to stop by and visit me on my Facebook Hot Lava Crochet page, my Craftsy pattern store, my Ravelry page, and lastly, if you are looking to improve your health, lose weight, increase your energy or even create an additional stream of income, I invite you to visit my Facebook Healthy Begins With You nutritional cleansing page. I have lost 53 pounds and I feel absolutely amazing!!! 


And now on to the free pattern! A very special "thank you" to Bendy Carter with her help 
testing the pattern! 
Enjoy!!!



Celebration 2015 Hat
  
Designed by Tammy Hildebrand.
RED HEART® Super Saver: 100% Acrylic; 7 oz. (198g), 364 yd (333m) skein; 1 skein each: Shocking Pink #718 (A); Jade #3862 (B); Lavender #358 (C).
Crochet Hook: 5.5mm [US I-9]. Yarn needle.
GAUGE:
Finished Size:
Special Stitches Sc2tog (single crochet two stitches together)
Notes Ch 3 at beginning of rounds counts as first double crochet. To change color, yarn over with new color when working final slip st to join round. Drop unused color to back of work until needed again and loosely carry up.
Instructions With A, ch 4, join with sl st to form ring. Rnd 1 (RS): Ch 3, 11 dc in ring, join with sl st in top of beg-ch changing to B. 12 dc. Rnd 2: With B, ch 1, sc in first st, ch 3, skip next st, *sc in next st, ch 3, skip next st; rep from * around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to C. 6 sc, 6 ch-3 sps. Rnd 3: With C, working all sts in skipped sts of 2 rnds previous and behind ch sts of previous rnd, sl st in first skipped st, ch 3, 2 dc in same st, ch 1, *3 dc in next skipped st, ch 1; rep from * around, join with sl st in top of beg ch-3 changing to A. 18 dc, 6 ch-1 sps. Rnd 4: With A, ch 1, * sc in first st of 3-dc group, working in ch-3 sp of 2 rnds previous and next st at same time, sc in next st, sc in next st, sc in next ch-1 sp,; rep from * around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to B. 24 sc. Rnds 5 – 7: Rep Rnds 2 – 4. 48 sc. Rnd 8: Rep Rnd 2. 24 sc, 24 ch-3 sps. Rnd 9: With C, working all sts in skipped sts of 2 rnds previous and behind ch sts of previous rnd, sl st in first skipped st, ch 3, 2 dc in same st, *3 dc in next skipped st; rep from * around, join with sl st in top of beg ch-3 changing to A. 72 dc. Rnd 10: With A, ch 1, * sc in first st of 3-dc group, working in ch-3 sp of 2 rnds previous and next st at same time, sc in next st, sc in next st, rep from * around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to B. 72 sc. Rnd 11: With B, ch 1, sc in first st, sc2tog, *sc in next st, sc2tog; rep from * around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to C. 48 sc. Rnd 12: With C, sc in each st around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to A. Rnd 13: With A, sc in each st around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to B. Rnd 14: With B, sc in each st around, join with sl st in beg sc changing to C. Rnds 15 – 23: Rep Rnds 12 – 14 three times. Rnd 24: Rep Rnd 12. Rnd 25: Working in front loops only, rep rnd 13. Rnd 26 - 28: Rep Rnds 8 – 10 (do not change to B in last rnd). Fasten off after last rnd.
Finishing With yarn needle, weave in ends.
ABBREVIATIONS: ch = chain; dc = double crochet; sc = single crochet; sl st = slip st; sp(s) space(es); st(s) = stitch(es); * = repeat whatever follows the * as indicated.