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Pompom blanket

For a while I had been looking at Rico pompom wool and loved the feel of it, what I didn’t like was the price. I happened to be in a discount store one day and saw that they had a lower price brand so bought some to make a blanket. I was pleased with the results even if it did feel a bit heavier than the Rico ones I had seen others make. A couple of months later my local wool shop had some Rico pom pom at half price, so I decided that making a comparison blanket for the blog was a good idea.

 The top strand is the Rico and the multi coloured at the bottom is the discount brand. Rico has a larger pompom which does lead to a fluffier blanket, while the smaller pompoms have made a slightly heavier one. I knitted both blankets using the same size needles and 2 stitches between each pom pom and both blankets have turned out a similar size, the Rico was just a couple of rows bigger but does seem to stretch more, not what I expected. They are suitable for a pram or Moses basket as I only used one ball of wool. If you are planning to make a blanket for a cot I would recommend you use at least 2 balls of wool. Overall I do prefer the feel of the Rico blanket, and the difference at full price for the wool was £3 per ball, not bad if you are only making a small blanket. However if I was making a larger blanket I would have a harder decision at the price difference.

I am not going to try to tell you how to knit with this wool, I would suggest that, like me, you find a video on you tube of someone you don’t find too annoying to listen to and follow their instructions. Casting on and off are the awkward bits but some of my friends say that they found knitting with the wool at all was troublesome. I recommend using the two needle method of casting on.

This post is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Rico and any opinions are my own.

Minion hat instructions.

Minion fans seem to be everywhere, even adults without children seem to have been bitten by the bug. In anticipation of Despicable Me 2 being released in November I thought it would be nice to share the pattern with you (and give slower crafters time to make one).

For most of my hat pattern I use the basic hat pattern from the Repeatcrafterme blog, and with just a few changes the owl will become a minion. http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2012/09/crochet-owl-hat-pattern-in-newborn.html .

sizes are from newborn to large adult, but if in doubt try the hat on as you make it to see if you need some extra rows.

The pattern uses American names for the stitches so if you are in the UK convert the stitches as follows.

SC- uk double crochet

DC- uk trebble

HDC - uk half trebble crochet.

if in doubt

This blog has so many great ideas and I wish I had as much time as Sarah to dedicate to making new patterns. She even provided a picture guide for beginners.

The picture is of my child size minion hat, the black stripe is done on row 9 – the row where the instructions tell you to change colour so it should easily translate into any size of hat.

For the eyes use white for the first 2 rounds then change colour on round 3 for the sc stitch. Then do an extra row but sc only half of the stitch, this will make the stitch sit at 90 degrees to the rest of the circle.  Sew a button onto the middle of the eye to finish them off or use some felt if you prefer. The hair is made by tying some scraps of black wool onto the hat.

Hopefully my next post will have a picture of the purple minion hat and the changes to the pattern to make it.