Potato Technology 2205 Collection Part Three
Forest Creature Hat
Have you ever wanted to look like you emerged from a cozy video game? Maybe you’d like to wear a hat that reminds you of spooky season? Behold my new crochet adventure, not my first hat, but the second stitched together for this autumnal season.
This hat is inspired by the pointed witch hats, either sewn or made from yarn, that make an appearance in October, either in patterns that I see advertised or inspiration sources online. I didn’t want to make anything too witchy. I am not aiming to be a witch; I am looking for something fantastical. My hat is more of an allusion to the pointed, wide-brimmed headwear, while also aiming to be something a bit historical, rural, maybe hobbity in form.
The inspiration image I used for this project is a hat from Animal Crossing: New Horizons – the frugal hat. It is a subtle nod to a scarecrow, while it could belong in the wizarding world. I chose to crochet this project for the ability to sculpt the hat in a way that is freeform. I love how crochet lets you create without managing all the stitches on a needle; instead, I was able to switch from the hat portion to the bill with ease. I crocheted onto the side of the hat and used varying stitches of single crochet, double crochet, and granny stitch to add the frilly volume to the bottom.
Another reason I chose to crochet, over knitting this hat, was to provide the hat with more structure than knit stitches. Crochet stitches have more body to them. This was a scrap project, using leftover yarn from my first sweater dress, now a cardigan, made in 2023. Which was also scrap yarn, from a previous scrap yarn project – my cat ear beanie from 2024. As time passes, and I make more things, I love seeing how projects are connected through materials over time, because scrap yarn is kind of magical. It’s always worth it, in my opinion, to hold on to the extras for these random projects that call for just a little bit of yarn.
Finally, this hat project was inspired by one other seasonal topic, the state of my country. It just never stops right now….ahhhh!!!
Am I living in the 1950s? No, but dang was this what McCarthyism was like? I’m sick of the FBI telling Black Americans not to mourn Assata Shakur. Charlie Kirk is being touted as a martyr by MAGA and the primarily white church, tainting the message of the gospel with that Nationalist sham of a funeral, complete with Hitler-esque photos by the orange man. It’s getting ICY in a lot of places nationwide. So, I made a witch hat, because the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 were not about witchcraft.
Instead, they were about religious extremism, sumptuary laws, xenophobia, and social tension. It was profitable to report your neighbor as a witch. You could gain financial and political power by reporting people who did nothing wrong. So I made a witch hat, because I am done with the injustices being played off as not that serious, and I am tired of our own political witch hunts. I feel helpless and angry all the time because of the Idiocracy. So I made a hat to try to do something creative with my feelings.
This forest creature hat, named by my sibling, was designed by me and created using worsted-weight acrylic yarn with a 5.5 mm crochet hook.
#75 – Caron Blossom Cake Blunder
A very silly but confounding thing happened yesterday as I was in the homestretch of my current crochet project. It is something that has never happened to me before. I was stumped. What happened you ask?
Well, I’m crocheting my first cardigan and to do this I decided to use Caron Blossom Cakes, specifically three cakes in the colorway Blossom. It’s a lovely tonal yarn with hints of sakura, periwinkle, and hydrangea blooms.
This fiber is one of the first affordable yarns to bring me joy in this confusing time of losing Joann. (Thankfully, Big Twist has been saved!) The Caron Cakes were the the buzz of Michael’s, drawing me in for a hope that I’d find a new favorite, and truly I have. This yarn is stunning. Soft to the touch, a half and half blend of cotton and acrylic. It never splits due to its structure which has made my first big project with a crochet hook a delightful experience.
When I first bought the yarn I was being cautious, purchasing the yarn on a bogo sale. I bought 3 cakes containing 481 yards of worsted weight yarn – enough for a sweater. Honestly this was far too scant of a amount, as time will prove. My intial plan was to make a skirt, but as it usually goes will my projects, I call an audible and make something new.
This should have been enough yarn, but I made the decision to oversize this cardigan and pick up more yarn if neccessary – and it was! Yesterday, I finished the body of the cardigan and began my final steps – the sleeves. To my shock I realized, the body panels had consumed 1 2/3 of the cakes. Leaving 1 1/3 cakes left for the sleeves, and these sleeves were going to be long. Much longer than I planned!
I usually knit my sweaters with a drop shoulder to shorten the sleeve length I have to knit because sleeves are so boring to knit! And they eat up yarn beyond my expectation everytime. To my horror, the sleeves were inset, not off the shoulder!
Not only would I have to knit the whole length, oversized, but I would need to using my new crochet skills to employ shoulder shaping – something I still get stuck on knitting. I quickly pulled up the yarn on my phone and was hit with a one-two-three punch – Blossom was out of stock, it was a Michael’s exclusive, and it is discontinued!
I was stunned! Like how do all those things happen right as I ran put of yarn?! 😲
I’ve been knitting since 2013, consistently since 2020 and I have never had a yarn disappear like this. On top of losing Sully last week, I was spiraling. I always have a plan for my knits, a yarn back up plan to piece in yarn if needed, but this project I wanted to be special. All in one color, like a “real” fiber artist. I was putting far too much pressure on this garment.
I’ve seen so many small businesses and artists this week, speak out about how the tariffs are effecting their businesses. Some are seeing 50% of their income being held hostage as the new rules are unclear. It’s left this dark, frustrating haze in my mind, like we’re in the final act of a Totally Spies episode and the evil genius might win.
I went to my stash and found that it was not what I thought it was either. I had a stash of final Joann yarn that I bought almost a year ago, left in my closet after the news with colors I didn’t remember and with less skeins than I recalled. Yeah it was, another pothole in the road. But dang, what is the point of creativity if you give up?
Some of the most beautiful garments were made with limitations. Why can’t I am for such success? I create on a budget, and I enjoy being a scrappy fiber artist – why change my approach now just because August has been heavy? Never give up!
One Rabbit Riot 