Tannenbaum Beanie

Hi, everybody. Welcome to our live event. So we are going to be working on some Christmas projects. Uh Coming up soon today, I'm gonna be teaching the Tannenbaum Ba beanie like O Tonen Bum. Um And then uh in a couple of weeks, I am going to be teaching, if any of you guys are knitters, I'm gonna be teaching how to make some really pretty fingerless gloves that have a fir tree on the back as like a cable motif, which will be fun too. Um I'm glad you guys are here. This is a live event. Please say hi, tell me where you're crocheting from or also what kind of if you've actually started any of your Christmas projects? Let me know that too. I'm curious to know. Um Also if you guys have any questions about what I'm gonna be showing you what I'm working on. Um You know, just color work questions in general. Definitely put those in the chat so I can answer those during this event. Um Yeah, so because I wanna make sure that you guys are understanding what I'm showing you. So that's the whole, that's the whole greatness of the live events so you guys can stop me and say, hey, can you show me that again or I don't quite understand that part or ask questions or if you have any tips for other people. That's great too. So the ton of bomb be beanie uh has a free download and you can go ahead and find that in the description. Um I think that there's also a link in the chat as well. So you can go ahead and click on that and you can follow along as I'm working my way through the pattern. It will be available later too if you want to come back and download that later. Um But you will need that in order to complete this hat unless you're like really good at memorizing uh a color chart. So this, this set of instructions, has all the instructions, everything you need to know, but I'm gonna be working my way through and showing you, you know, all the different techniques you need to know in order to complete this cute hat. So one of the things I was thinking about when I designed this was, you know, I really wanted some kind of holiday Christmas themed project, of course, because we're celebrating Christmas in July. Um But I wanted it to be something that you could wear at another time of year or, you know, even after the Christmas season is over because I'm just sort of practical at heart about some things and when you work really hard on something, you know, this is a color work project and, you know, it takes some time to put the stitches in the right place. It would be just be nice if you could extend that wearing season just a little bit longer. And this is to me, this beautiful scene of fir trees, you know, could definitely extend, you know, past Christmas. And so, um yeah, so I'm really pleased with my design and I'm excited to share it with you guys. Um Yeah, so let's talk about the materials first. So we're gonna be uh working with, well, I used a worsted weight wool, that's a super wash wall, meaning that you can wash this, it's not gonna felt. Um But even though I use the super wash, I still like to hand wash this because of the pom pom. But if you don't put the pom pom on, then you could, you know, definitely throw it in the washing machine. However, you can certainly substitute this with a different, you know, you can use acrylic, you could use an acrylic wool blend. You could use a regular wool yarn that, you know, it's not a super wash yarn. Um You don't, you don't have to be limited to the the fiber options that I chose if you want to know the exact brand and colors and everything that information is in your download. So you can check that out. I did want to mention that this is a worst weight yarn. So it's a number four which is like a medium weight, but it's a slightly on the thinner end of a number four. So, you know, there are some number fours definitely that are thicker than this. It's just kind of like, I, in my opinion, it's like barely a number four. So you might find some decay or number three yarns that might get you the same gauge as well. So I put in the, in the pattern, I'm suggesting you use a worsted weight or a decay weight yarn. So it would be like a little bit of a thicker decay weight or a little bit of a thinner worsted weight yarn. It's kind of like in the middle there, you just can kind of see how it swatches up. Um, and as long as you get the gauge then you're, you know, you can certainly use that yarn. Um, oh, and we Sue is saying hi, great to see you here in Hot Pennsylvania. Hi, Sue. I'm glad that you're here. Thanks for saying hi. Um, ok, so the, the yarn. Oh, I forgot to tell you how much you're gonna need. So, there are four sizes in this pattern. So you're gonna need anywhere between, let's see, 92 to 100 and 25 yards of the green. So the darker color and somewhere between 100 and 62 and 100 and 95 yards of the gray for the, you know, the lighter color. That's the background color. That would be the, the main color is the gray and the contrast color is the green. And I wanna point out if you downloaded this. Um, actually, I'm not quite sure if this has been fixed or not, but there are two little errors in this, in this pattern that we're getting fixed. I'm not sure if they're fixed yet or if, if they're, they will be soon fixed if they're not fixed by now. Um But I want to point this out just in case you have an older copy of the pattern. Um right underneath instructions. So this is page five says instructions, ribbing. The very first thing should say with contrast color and smaller hook. I forgot to mention which hook you're using for this part of the hat. Um And I accidentally put main color instead of contrast color. It should be contrast color there with contrast color and smaller hook. That's how that should um be stated right at the beginning of the ribbing. And then on the next page page six, right at the top, right at the beginning of round one, I should have written change to larger hook first before the instructions because we're gonna change to a larger size. We'll be going over that again as we work our way through. But I just wanted to call those out just in case. Um there is an older version of the pattern that's up right now, like I said, it will be corrected soon, but you can just go ahead and check for that. Ok. Um So I'm gonna be using two different size hooks as you probably gathered from what I was just talking about. Uh, for the ribbing, I'm using a slightly smaller hook. I'm gonna be using an F hook, which is a 3.75 millimeter hook. And then once I get past the ribbing and do just one round of the body of the hat, then we're gonna switch to the larger hook, which is a G four millimeter hook. So these are the hooks that I used in order to make the fabric that, you know, the way that I liked it to feel. And so you're gonna need to, you can start with these hooks, but you're gonna need to check your gaze and make sure that these are the right hook sizes for you. Um Once you start stitching along, you can compare your piece to mine. I do have a little um, little gauge sheet in here. If you're not, if you really hate making gauge swatches and checking your gauge, you're not alone. I hate it too. So I always try to put like a little sneaky little thing in my um pattern that helps you check the gauge. If you just are one of those people who is either gonna skip the gauge Swatch or, you know, grumble about it like me. Um, so if you wanna check it without making a different gauge swatch, you can just start working on your ribbing piece and then you'll measure it after you've worked, uh, 19 rows of the ribbing and it'll be about an inch and a half wide by four inches long. And if that matches you're good to go on that hook and then just kind of keep monitoring your gauge as you go just to make sure, especially when you switch to a one size larger hook to start doing the body of the hat. Just, you know, keep looking at your gauge and making sure that your hat's turning out the right size. If you are a person who's ok with making gauge watches, then lucky you. That's awesome. And I put information on what your gauge swatch should be measuring here if you're ok with just making the gauge swatches before you make the hat. Ok. So sorry, I'm a little bit all over the place today. So we talked about the yarn, we talked about the hooks. You're gonna need two removable stitch markers and one of they have to contrast from each other. So you can keep track of which stitch marker is gonna mark the beginning of the rounds. I always use a red one because to me that means stop. Um And then GRE green for the other ones because that's keep going. Um this and you'll see why later when I put these, um hooks actually in the project as I'm working on it, why I'm choosing those two colors, you don't have to choose the same colors that I'm using, but just make sure that you can tell the difference and you know which one is gonna mark the beginning of your rounds. OK? So you can write that down if you're worried, you're gonna forget. Um but it will just help you later once we start doing the color work. All right. And then you're just gonna need a tapestry needle and then a way to make a pom pom. So you might have a pom pom maker. That's awesome. If you don't have a pom pom maker, if you just get a three inch piece of cardboard just like this, then I I will show you how to make a pom pom without having a pom pom maker. Alrighty, I wanna say hi to Barbara and Mary and Martha and Karen. Hi, you guys. Thanks so much for saying hello. I'm glad you guys are here. All right, let's get started. So, um I I'm gonna start out by making the ribbing and we're just gonna start with a slipknot on our smaller hook. So that is my 3.75 millimeter hook. And we're starting with the contrast color, which is the green and we're gonna change seven no matter what size you're working on it. Just just seven. So 1234, 56 and seven. And next, we're going to turn our chain over. So right now I'm looking at the top of the chain. So it's a bunch of little, vs, all kind of stacked up in a row going this way, gonna roll that over. So the vs are touching the table, then there's all these little horizon horizontal dashes on the back and that's where I'm gonna work my stitches across the chain. I'm gonna skip the very first horizontal dash which is right there. And I'm gonna go under the second one. I'm gonna do a yarn over, insert my hook, yarn over, pull up a loop and then I'm going to pull that same loop through the two loops that are on my hook. This is called a yarn over slip stitch. So we yarn over, insert yarn over, pull up and then pull that same loop through the two loops on your hook. Oops, I split my urine there, there we go. So the yarn over slip stitch. This is a little bit of an unusual stitch. I, I only just sort of realize the stitch existed maybe, I don't know, eight years ago or something like that. But ever since then I have been using it a lot because I just love how stretchy it is and it's easier to do than a regular slip stitch through the back loop. I don't know if you guys have tried that, but that has a tendency to get really tight for most people. Um I think I do have a video on the creative crochet corner though, on how to keep that from happening. Uh When you get to the end of your row, you're going to make just one turning chain and then we're gonna turn that like we're turning a page in a book and we're gonna work across our chain again. We're working in turn rows and we're gonna be working the yarn over slip stitch. But this time we're just gonna be working it underneath, only the back loop. So normally we would put our hook under here underneath both loops. But this time we're gonna put it under just the back loop, which is right there and in each of the back loops across and that is what's gonna make it look ribbed and give it a little extra stretch. So we yarn over, insert through the back loop, yarn over, pull up a loop and pull through the two loops on the hook, yarn over, insert through the back loop, yarn over, pull up a loop and pull through the two loops on the hook. So if you're newer to this, um or newer to just crochet in general, I would use a stitch marker to mark the first and last stitch of the row. So that way you make sure you're not adding stitches or, or dropping, forgetting to, to work to work into those edge stitches because that's what's gonna make your ribbing stay nice and tidy if you've got those marked and you know, exactly where to stop and start because as you can see here, we're going to be looking at the turned edge of our ribbing right here. So you want that to be nice and tidy. And there's no shame in using the extra stitch markers just to remind you, you know, this is the first stitch. This is the last stitch, especially until you get the hang of it and you can recognize um your stitches. So I'm just continuing working that yarn over slip stitch through just the back loop. I wanna show you um on this next row. If you're having trouble getting your, your making your stitch, if it's getting too tight, I wanna show you one little thing that I like to do. So yarn over, insert yarn over, pull up a loop and I make sure that I'm pulling, pulling up that loop, you know, so that there's a little space so you can get your hook through um right here so you can get your hook through these two loops. But then I pinch at the base of everything right here between my, my two fingers. And so that way I can kind of pull my hook in this direction and get my hook through. Oops, I just dropped a little part of that, that way I can get my hook through those two stitches right there. So we'll do that again. See, I'm pinching right here with my thumb and my finger to hang on to that because it can be kind of hard if you're not doing that. If you're over here, it's really hard to get that loop to go through. So I pinch and impulse through just like that chain, one turn. You can see the ribbing pattern is already starting. I'll do one more row here. And if you, if you're working on this pattern and you're like, oh, I really do not like the stitch pattern. Some people do not like to do this because it, it takes a little while longer. I definitely think it's worth it. And you're just doing a very narrow band here. So it's a good, um, good thing to try out. But, but if you're like, I can't, I'm not gonna do that. That's OK. You can do another kind of ribbed stitch here. You can do a single crochet through the back loop. You could do half, double crochet through the back loop and then you're just gonna make that piece of ribbing a little smaller than your head, maybe like two inches or so, or an inch, at least about an inch and a half smaller than your head, just depending on how stretchy it is. Um And then I'll tell you on the next step how to modify things. Ok. So you, if you're following my pattern, you're just gonna work back and forth and back and forth in the yarn over slip stitch to the back loop, only pattern, turning back and forth and depending on the size you're making, you're gonna do more, fewer rounds, uh, rows. I'm making the smallest size for the sample here today. Um So I'm gonna be doing 80 rows, but for the other sizes, you will be doing a different amount. Let me just show you the pattern here and just really quickly um because people who are, who are a little bit newer to reading patterns oftentimes they're confused by this parentheses business and all the numbers, these little sets of numbers pertain to the different sizes. So this is the smallest size. This is the second size, the third size and the fourth size and those they all pertain to the way that the sizes are listed at the beginning. When you take a look here, child small, child, medium, adult small, that's one size, adult, medium and adult large. Ok. So there's four sizes here and then there's four sets of circumferences, you know, for finished measurements and those also pertain to the way that they're listed here. Ok. So if you're looking at the first number, that's gonna be the information for the child small. If you're looking at the last number in the parentheses, that's gonna be the information for the adult large. So that's what's going on with those parentheses. And I did put a link in here in case you have trouble reading patterns. I did do a live event where, um, I just kind of worked my way through a pattern and explained what everything meant. Um So you may find that helpful if you're struggling to read, to read the pattern. OK. So I have worked back and forth and back and forth in 80 turned rows of the yarn over slip stitch through the back loop only. And I now I have this very elastic stretchy um ribbing here. And so I'm going to chain one, turn my work like I'm gonna do another row, but then I'm going to bring the foundation edge up to the just in front of the last drawer that I worked. And now I'm gonna slip stitch these edges together. So I'll insert my hook into the back loop of the edge in front and then through the back loop of the edge and back, gonna yarn over, pull through both stitches and through the loop on my hook to make a slip stitch. I'm gonna do that again. Working just through those back loops, grab that yarn, pull through the stitches and pull through the loop on my hook. So I'm gonna continue this, I'll be making six slip stitches across and this is what is going to steam up my ribbing here. And if you substitute it with a different stitch pattern, you can use this to seam it up as well. Um, or if you don't like how that looks, you can sew it up. That's fine too. And we're gonna turn that so that our seam that we just made is on the inside. Ok. So I've just, that's the sea we made, I'm turning it to the inside like that. And now we are going to work an extended, single crochet into each row and around. So here we are in the body of the hat. This whole section is um the set up round here is what we're gonna be doing here. So we're gonna chain one to start. That doesn't count as anything. It just kind of like gets us up to the next row kind of. And now we're gonna do an extended single crochet into each row end. So a row end is either a kind of ridge right here like what's between my thumbs? See all those vs, all stacked up, that's a row end right there and then the space between ridges. So this little valley here between my thumbs that is also a row end. So let me show you how this works. So we're gonna insert our hook, we're gonna yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through one yarn over and pull through two. That's an extended single crochet. We're gonna do that again. So here's the space between ridges. So there's a ridge there, there's a ridge there. We're gonna insert our hook here, yarn Oops. Uh Yeah. So insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through one yarn over, pull through two. There's the next row end. It's a ridge. I'm placing my hook right here in the top V right in the center. There. You're an over, pull up a loop. You're an over pull through one. You're an over pull through two. Here's a valley. We're gonna insert a hook, you're over, pull up a loop, you're an over pull through one, you're an over pull through two. So as we work our way around, we're making an extended single crochet into each row end here. So into each ridge and into each valley between ridges. So we're gonna have the same amount of stitches, same amount of extended single crochets as we have rows in the yarn over slip stitch um pattern. And if you had substituted with a different type of ribbing, then you will just have to evenly distribute the total number of stitches that you are supposed to have around uh around the hat. So that would be, that's the same number of roses. You were supposed to work the yarn over slips stitch pattern. But if you say you did half, double crochets, those are taller. So you're not gonna have the same amount of rows here. So you can't do a 1 to 1 ratio. If you have substituted with a different ribbing pattern, you're just gonna have to evenly distribute those stitches around the top edge of your ribbing. And if you are following my directions and you're using the yarn over slips stitch pattern, you can just ignore all that, that I just said I just wanted to help those of you out who are not as in love with the R and over slip stitch pattern as I am. And I, I don't know why you wouldn't be, but I know that there are some people out there who don't love it. OK. So you can see what's happening here is we're just doing that round in the same color. So it's kind of blending in and the cool thing. The thing that I love so much about using the yarn over slip stitch pattern is that first of all, it's a 1 to 1 ratio of the number of stitches around the hat that look good with the number of rows. But also because when you're working into the tops of those vs at the, the end of the ridge and you make an extended single crochet, it really looks like it just continues right up into your stitch. It, it, it just kind of extends that look because when you make the extended single crochet, you're basically making two vs one and then two stacked on top of each other. And it looks just like these vs here. So it's a really seamless way of going from working your ribbing sideways to, you know, beginning this new stitch pattern and working in the round. Um, you know, after you've switched the direction that you're crocheting in, so they just look so good together. Ok, about halfway there on this part, you know, it can be a little bit fiddly because you're just kind of finding a good place to put your hook there. Isn't on those, um, on those valleys, like right here, you can just go under one strand or you could go under a couple more strands, but it does take a little extra effort to kind of find where your hook needs to go through, but it's definitely worth it. It's much easier I think than sewing the ribbon to your hat later, which you could do. Ok, you guys, I wanna know if any of you guys have started working on your holiday Christmas lists. I am so far away from that. Besides the projects that I'm gonna be teaching for uh Christmas in July. Um But that's because I had an actual work deadline for those. I'm not very good at getting things done ahead of time unless I have some kind of somebody else relying on me to do it. But I'm just curious of how many of you guys think about that getting stuff done way ahead of time. I make the holiday season so much less stressful. I mean, just imagine you had all of your projects done by, you know, November and then you could just sort of enjoy the holidays and not be working late nights trying to finish people's prod, you know, presents for them like I do. All right. I've got a few more stitches left here and then we're gonna get into the color work section. So one thing that I really, really love about the extended single crochet is that it creates amazing color work. It is flatter than most stitches and the way that the stitches fit together, it just looks a little neater than say if you were just doing a single crochet or something. Um I do like using split single crochet for color work. If you guys have ever tried that before, also known as the, I think the waistcoat stitch. Um that makes really good color work too. But the thing about that is you have to go up a lot of hook sizes to make a fabric that has any drape to it, which is fine and sometimes you want that stiffness, you know, if you're making a, a bag or something like that or warm mittens, you want that thick fabric, but the extended single crochet has more drape to it than that. Then that stitch pattern does. Um And it still makes, you know, really tidy color work. So it's, it's a fun one to try if you guys have never tried it before, that's what we're gonna be using in this hat. OK. So I've worked my first round in the hat. The setup round which is right here. Then we are going to be working round one and this is where we switch to the larger hook. So you may have noticed I didn't do a joint or anything at the end of the round. Um You don't need to do a join. We're just gonna continue working around and be working in a spiral. We're not joining our rounds. OK? So I'm gonna point out here that there are four different color charts in your pattern and you need to make sure that you're working from the correct one. I'm gonna be working the smallest size, which is right here, that very top. I'm gonna put this in my little chart keeper. So it's a little easier for me to see what I'm doing. OK. So we're just ignoring all of these. Um And I like to use this chart keeper because it, it, if I put this magnet above the, the line that I'm about to work, then I it's like I don't even see what's going on up there. I'm just focusing on what's going on down here and it's just easier for me to keep my place. So you can see when I, when we're looking at this chart, let me move this away because there might be a little shadow here. But the first color we're gonna be working from right to left because I'm right handed and I'm showing you right handed. But, oh, here's my special note. To you lefties out there. If you're left handed, then make a reverse image copy of this chart. So, flip it horizontally and print it out that way because, and that might seem silly because why does it matter which way your trees are facing? You're gonna be working your color work from left to right as you crochet. And so when you do that, when you're working from left to right, you need to flip your chart because of the way that stitches fit together. Even though these are sort of, they sort of have bilateral Syme symmetry. Um the way that the stitches fit together, they're not absolutely symmetrical from side to side. And so the way your stitches connect is, you know, in, in any different crochet stitch pattern really. Um it, it uh can change the way the color work appears. I I talk a little bit about this in my book, um the Huer book, which is a collection of color work motifs if you want to learn a little bit more about that. But just really quickly, if you take a look at this tree, you can see on this side of the tree, this line is unbroken, it's pretty straight and on this side of the tree, it almost looks like dot dot dot Here, even though the chart is mostly symmetrical here, you just see, you know, there are um here right here. If you take a look, see how there's just the lighter colored squares at a diagonal, they're at the same angle and everything, but they look differently. And that's because of the way the stitches are shaped. So that the reason I'm having you as a lefty flip your chart to the other way is just because of the way that the stitches connect to each other. Because there are areas like, for example, right here in this little chart. That's right here. You see this little green block and it's diagonal from this little green block. If you don't flip it, this little green block will look like it's kind of floating just ever so slightly away from the tree. It's not gonna look like it's connected to that section right there. Um If that doesn't make any sense to you, you don't need to know that. Just if you're a lefty, flip your chart horizontally and then work your chart from left to right. All right. So we're gonna be starting with one of the lighter colors here. So this gray. So I'm gonna add in a strand of my gray and since the first stitch is gray, what that means is you need to start with gray already on your hook before you make the stitch. So we've just worked our very last stitch in green here. I'm gonna put my hook back in here and before I do my last yarn over the last stitch, actually, I'll just undo that very last stitch and I'm going to begin my last stitch of the setup row here. So I do my yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through one and then normally I would yarn over and pull through two with the green, but we're switching colors. So we're just gonna lay the gray on there and we're just gonna pull through two with the gray. And that way, now we can start with the color that we're gonna begin our chart with, which is the gray right here. So if you take a look at this chart, depending on the size you're working on, you might be starting with gray or you might be starting with green like in the medium here. And um actually, that's the only size where you'd be starting with green. So if you are working this size, the second size, you can complete that last stitch of your setup row in green. So you're ready to start with the green stitch. OK? So we are going to be working over kind of encasing the yarn that we're not using. I'm going to work into that very first stitch of the round and I'm gonna do just one gray stitch. Let me shift this over here. So I'm gonna do one gray stitch. So, and we're still working in extended single crochet and the green yarn is laying right there on top of my work. So we're gonna yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through one and then we're gonna yarn over, pull through two to finish our extended single crochet. But if you take a look at the chart, our next stitch is green. So we're gonna drop the gray, pick up the green and complete our stitch with the green. So now we've got six stitches in green right here. We've got these six stitches to do before we switch to the gray. I'm laying the gray on top of the green and I'm gonna work six extended single crochets encasing that little gray stray. There, there's 23, four, five and six. And on the last one, we're gonna switch to the gray. So I'm gonna lay that down, pick up the gray and finish that with the yarn over in the gray. So now I'm ready to work the gray stitches. So I've got five gray stitches in a row right here working over that green strand. The green strand is just laying on the top here. So, one, two, three, four, five and then I'm going to pick up the green to finish that fifth stitch. And now I'm going to work um four green stitches and switch and do one of gray and one of green. So here's our four green stitches. One, two, three, here's our fourth stitch and so on our very last yarn over, we're going to yarn over with the gray to complete that stitch. So we're ready for the next stitch. The reason we do that is because really the, the loop on your hook is going to create the top of the stitch that you're about to make. It's like you're making the hat first and then you're making the person here to wear the hat. Right. So I've got to switch to green and then at the end of the screen, I'm gonna switch back to the gray. So you have to think a little ahead of time and it will become automatic after you've done this for a while. It takes a while. At first, you have to, you know, just really think about what you're doing and you can always, you know, unravel like part of a loop and, and put it back on your hook, that's no big deal. But you, you do have to switch, you have to think about it when you're finishing that last stitch before the color change. So I'm just following my color chart working the stitches as they come up. So I'm right here. I did, um, you can see it kind of matches up. We've got gray and green, gray, gray, green, green, green, gray and then three greens, three grays, three greens. Sometimes I will think of numbers, I'll say 333 and I know at the end of, you know, whatever that number is, I gotta switch to the next color. So that would be one, two, three and we'll switch to the lighter color, one to three. Switch to the darker color one two, three and switch to the lighter color. One, switch to the darker color and then we gotta do 2121 two, one two. And what? And now after you've gone all the way across, you're gonna repeat that one more time for this first round. So if you look at the last color, it's the gray and then we come over here and then the first color of round one is gray. So we don't have to change color after this one. So we're gonna do gray. That's our last stitch of that round. And now we're gonna do our second repeat of the colors chart. So we're coming over here and doing exactly the same stitches we already did. So here's the first one and we're gonna mark that. Oh I forgot to put a stitch marker in my first stitch. So I'm marking that with green. The first stitch of the round, just this gray one. I'm gonna mark that with red. So that's gonna mark the beginning of my rounds. So that way I, I know where I am in the chart. OK. So on this stitch, I should have changed to green because I'm only doing one stitch at the beginning of the repeat with that gray before I switch to the green. And I'm gonna do six screens. So one thing when you're working on, when you're working on changing colors back and forth, you need to be checking to make sure that, that strand you're crocheting over isn't too tight. You don't want it to restrict your, your stitches and squish them all up and, uh, you know, that will make your hat not stretchy. Um, so, but you also don't want it to be too loose where it's kind of poking out the back or co you know, being seen between your stitches. So, what I do is I pull on that after I finished, you know, a section of stitches, I pull on that to make sure it's tight and then I pull on my fabric here to make sure it's not too tight. Um And I forgot to switch to the gray. So I'm gonna put my hook back in those last two loops, pull that out, it's, and switch to the gray. Ok. So we're doing five gray here. See, I kind of pull on that every once in a while if I can see it, it's kind of loopy and this, you know, it is a, it is awkward at first switching between your, your colors, switching back and forth like this, but it gets much easier after you've done a project or two. So hang in there. All right. So we've got our four greens. Another thing that really helps is if you think about always placing the light color to either the front or the back and the darker color to the opposite. So let, let's say that we're always gonna put our lighter color to the front when we're done with it. And then, you know, we're switching back and forth and I'm done with the dark. So I'm gonna place that to the back and I'm gonna do two lighters here and we'll do light to the front. Now, it doesn't matter if light goes to the front or to the back, you just need to be consistent. And if you're consistent, you're not, your yarn is not gonna get all tangled up, especially if you're just using just those two colors because you can actually do this with multiple colors, which is kind of cool too. Um But if you're just using those two colors and you're always placing one to the front and one to the back, then it's gonna keep your yarn from getting all tangled. But I'll show you how to untangle this. If you, if you notice you have a whole bunch of twists in your yarn like this, you can just look at the way that they're twisting and know, ok, if I, if I move my yarns in this direction, it's gonna untwist them. So I gotta set them to the back, set them to the back, set them to the back for a while and that will untangle it for you. So, let's see. Where are we here? OK. So three greens and one gray. Let's see. Oh, I gotta do one more of these grays here. I'm setting it to the back cause I need to untangle it. Um, three greens, one two three. Setting that to the back, meaning it's just going, it's just going this way sending it to the back one, two, three, setting it to the back and we should be, oh, not quite all the way untangled but close I'm just following tho those color, that color chart on the very bottom. That's where I'm at right now. So I need to do three greens. I forgot to switch my color to green here. So that's ok. Oh, I think maybe I, I might have made a mistake somewhere because I'm running out of, of um stitches. So we're gonna go back through here and see. Luckily we have this here. So this is the first stitch. So we've got six greens, five grays, four greens, Oh, right here. This is where I made my mistake. This is why I really like to mark the beginning of that second repeat because it will, you know, you can just kind of work your way backwards and find your place really easily. Ok. 231. Ok. So now I'm gonna do three greens, 123, three grays, one to three, three greens, one 23 and then gray, two greens, gray, two greens and then gray. Ok. So we reach the end of round one and then we would work starting over on this side across round two. I'm just gonna do a few stitches of that to show you. So since we know it begins with gray, we're gonna keep, we're gonna finish up our very last stitch of round one with that gray. Otherwise, if we, if the first stitch, for example, this one ends in gray on round two. But then when we start round three, we start with green. So we have to finish our last stitch of round two with the green. So we're ready to go here. Ok. So we're just working round two. We're gonna do three grays, three greens. Here's our first gray. One, two, three there. See, I've gotten untangled now, I just had to set them to the back a few times in a row and now you can see my strands are, are untangled so you can fix that just by crocheting. So here's my three greens. This is the beginning of row number two or round number two. Switching to that gray and then we'll do two greens, one, two. Ok. So you just have to kind of think before you finish up each stitch, just be looking forward to see what the next stitch is. And I just wanted to show you as you're working through your chart. You know, if you, if you have post it notes or a piece of paper or something to cover up where you're going to because you don't need to know, you don't need to know what's lying ahead there. You don't need to worry about that. You just need to look at the section that you are about to be working. Let me turn it this way. So you, you know, if you're working round two here, you're just gonna be working that section right there and you're comparing it to the squares that are from round one just directly below. So you can see how they relate. Like you can look at this and say, oh, there's two green squares and I, I've got gray squares going on to those two green squares there. And now I have 33 green squares and then that let that next gray square, which is right there. It's above the last of those green squares. So that's how I always kind, I keep track of where I am unless I'm talking to you guys and then I'm not keeping track. But um it's a way to kind of keep track of where things are at once you get that first round in and you get those stitches in the right spot, the color in the right spot. It makes it much easier to do the next round because you can compare, you know where you're at by what you've already done down here. So you can take a look at those too. So you're just gonna continue working around and around and around until you have worked, you know, all the way up through round. Uh Let's see, 13 or 1415 or 15, depending on the size that you're making. Um This is what it would look like on the smallest size. And then I did because round or sorry, size small and size, I think adult large. Let me just check. Let's see, this only pertains to two sizes. Um, child small and adult large. You do one round of extended single crochet just without any decreasing or anything like that. And you do that one round working in the main color and you're gonna continue to work over the contrasting color. And I know that might seem really silly um to be working over that contrasting color, but it helps keep the gauge consistent and it also helps keep it a little bit warmer. It looks like the, the fabric itself will look more similar. It's just easier if you can continue to stitch over that. If it really bothers you to see that little peek through of that second color because you can kind of see the green kind of sh showing through if that bothers you, you can cut off the green and you can add a strand of the same color here to work over, but just make sure that you're working over something, one of the ST a strand of yarn in whatever color you wanna work, work it in. Um But you're gonna do that for the whole rest of the hat and I'm gonna be showing you the decreases next. I just want to get caught up here. You guys have been chatting without me here. Um, oh, somebody started in July. Zero per 0%. Yes, I started even earlier. Oh, we have a pole. Ok. I didn't realize they had a pole. Um, nobody has started earlier. Not yet, but I plan to start soon. About half, half the people and no, I start closer to the holidays and the other half the people. Ok. That's interesting. Yeah, I'm usually usually when the weather starts getting colder, that's like my reminder. And thank you, Claudia for the compliment. Yes. And we had a question of whether I'm working in a spiral. Yes, there is no join. I'm just working in a spiral and that just means you're just going around and around and around, you're not doing that slip stitch to join and then, and doing a beginning chain. We're not doing that. Um We're just working around and around and around and that makes for an uninterrupted um pattern. So right here, this is where the beginning of my rounds is, but you can't even tell, you know, it just looks very smooth because we're just working in a spiral there. So that's why I chose not to do that. Ok. So we have worked all the way up through round 14 or 16 depending on what, you know, whether you're doing the child size or adult child s small or adult large sizes. Um But also for the other sizes where you don't do just that one round. We're all completed. We've worked through our color chart and we're ready to start our decreases. Um Let's see here. So, oh, you guys, I can't remember if I switched to my larger hook was I working? I can't remember somebody who was watching this. Hopefully you can pipe in, but I should have switched to my larger hook, which is the GS size hook after that set up round. And I, I cannot remember if I did or not, but right after you do the setup round, which is just working in the main color before you start working from the chart, before you add that extra strand, make sure you go one size up because that's gonna help you a lot of times when we work in color, uh color work, it kind of makes our stitches tighter and close together. So that's why we switched to the larger hook. OK. So I'm gonna show you how to do the decreases for the top of the hat. Um So for this size, we're gonna be working. Um Let's see. OK. So this is broken up into directions for different sizes. So we're gonna keep working over that contrasting color, which is the green. We're gonna be working in our main color for the rest of the hat. And I'm gonna do an extended single crochet two together, which is a decrease and then I'm gonna make extended single crochets in each of the next nine stitches and then I'm gonna do that whole sequence a total of eight times. So this will be, you'll have a different number of stitches here for the other sizes. Um It's a similar thing for the adult, medium, adult, large sizes down here in the next round. Um But I just wanna make sure that you guys know how to work those decreases. All right. So we're gonna do an extended single crochet two together. So the way I like to do that is I insert my hook underneath just the front strand of that next stitch, which is right here, not under both strands, just under the front. And then I go underneath both strands of the following stitch. Then I'm gonna yarn over and pull that loop through both of my stitches and then I'm gonna yarn over, pull through one yarn over, pull through two. OK? I'll do that again. So you guys can see. But first, I'm gonna do nine extended single crochets. So one place this back into that very first stitch of the round. Keep track of my beginnings around lips to three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine. And now I'm gonna do another decrease here. So I'm going under the front loop only and then under the back or under both loops of the following stitch. I'm gonna grab that yarn, pull through each of those two stitches. Now I'm going to yarn over, pull through one yarn over, pull through two. OK. So that's my extended single crochet two together or a decrease in the extended single crochet stitch pattern. Now I'm gonna do my nine stitches. This will be a different number for the other sizes eight and nine. And I'm gonna do the extended single crochet two together. So I go under the front loop under both loops, grab the yarn, pull through that stitch, pull through this stitch. Now I'm gonna complete my extended single crochet as normal. So yarn over, pull through one, yarn over, pull through two. OK? So that's how you make the decreases. You can see it's starting to pull in just a little bit here. It's probably not too noticeable yet, but I can feel it as I'm working. Um So we're gonna be using that technique to be making our decr decreases in our hat and we don't make a decrease on every single round. So for example, we're doing the decreases here on round. Let's see. Uh Let's see. OK. Child small. Oh I just realized, OK, you guys, I made a mistake. I am so sorry I was doing, I was following the child medium adult small pattern of decreasing here. I mean it doesn't matter what, it doesn't matter what size you're making, you're still making your decreases in the same method that same extended single crochet two together. But I was putting the incorrect amount of stitches between my ST um between my decreases. I was looking at the wrong size. I was looking at the child medium adult small size when I was spacing them out with those nine stitches between it's either 9, 10 or 11 if you're doing the child, medium, adult, small, adult, medium or adult large sizes. Um I should have skipped all the way down here for the smallest size. See, for around 15 after working one round, even ro I, I should have come down here for the smallest size. So that's a listen to everybody there. I'm gonna just rip that out. Should have been paying more attention to my sizing. I'm bring it out to the very last um the first stitch really that I did here because that was an a decreased stitch and extended single crochet two together. And for this size, I'm just doing that decrease all the way around and I'm gonna end up with half the amount of stitches at the end of my round. So what's really happening here is that for some of the other sizes, the three sizes we're doing a few decreases here and there spread out around the hat. So that way it gets um the math works out. So then we can start decreasing by halves here, meaning you know, decreasing all the way around. And then here we do around where we're just working even. And then here we're decreasing all the way around. So I, I'm sorry, you guys, I hope that was not confusing to you. Um Everything's correct here in the instructions though, of course. So you can read your way through. But if you are working the smallest size like I am, after you work that one round even, you would just start decreasing in every single stitch around. So you're just doing extended single crochet two togethers all the way around like this. OK? To make those decreases. And it's gonna come in much quicker than what I was what I was doing before. So if you were working the second size, that what I was showing you earlier where you, where you had those nine stitches in between, that would be how you would space out your decreases before you get to this section down here. So we're just doing that, the extended single crochet two together by sliding underneath the front loop of the next stitch underneath both loops of the following stitch yarn over, bring your yarn through both stitches, yarn over, pull through one yarn over, pull through two. OK? So you can see that's already bringing this in. If I fold it this way, you can see it's like curving it in real quick. So you would work that all the way around. Then the following round, you just work one stitch into each stitch around, just extended single crochet. We're still continuing to, to crochet over a strand of yarn for stability and for gauge purposes. Um Then the next two rounds were just decreasing all the way around the whole hat. Both of both of the next two rounds and then we just fasten off and you would use your needle to kind of run through all of the last stitches and cinch that together at the very top of the hat. Um I just want to check and make sure I'm all caught up here. Ok. Oh, Sue mcvicar is telling me I did switch to the purple when I started round one. Ok. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. I'm glad I did that. Well, I I'm having kind of a kind of a confused uh day here. Oh, and Stacy has a really good hint. This is great. I'm glad you brought this up, Stacey, she's saying to highlight the size you're making throughout the whole pattern. That's what I should have been doing before I made that mistake and looked at the wrong size. Um Yes, that is a very, very good tip to just kind of go through and only highlight the numbers and the sections that pertain to you. Um And that's what I really should have done. Maybe I should do that before all my lives. Thank you for that Stacy. Um And Sue is saying it sure helps a wandering eye. Yes, that is for sure. Yes. All right. So I think I'm all caught up in my questions. Um So yeah, so just at this point, it's just decreasing and then just watch out for, you know, there's one round where you're not decreasing right here. You're just working an extended single crochet in each stitch around. You're just going to weave that yarn tail through all the last loops. So what that means is after you fasten off here, I'll just kind of show you on a little part of my hat after you fasten off. Um, your hat will be much smaller, there will just be a small section, just a little section of stitches left. So you can just pull your yarn through like that and then you will thread your, your um yarn tail on your needle and then you're just gonna go through. So just imagine this is the top of your hat and you only have a few, few stitches left. You would just put your needle through just the front loop of each of those stitches like this, you know, all the way around. And you can use that to pull in the very, you know, the very last round of your hat to kind of cinch that in like that to make it tight at the very top. So, and then you would add your pom pom. So I just want to quickly talk about the pom pom thing just in case you don't have a pom pom maker. And you've never made a pom pom before. You are going to take your piece of cardboard and wind your yarn 100 and 75 times around this cardboard. Now, I know this sounds crazy. You don't have to count it. But this is for, you know, if you've never done this before, it might be hard to know when is enough or when you can stop. So I actually counted for you. How many I did for my pom, pom. So you just wrap it around and around and around and um I actually did that already on this piece. So I've got 100 and 75 wraps around my cardboard and then you will take two strands of yarn. They don't have to be super long, but you're gonna tie each strand around each half of the pom pom. There's lots of different ways to make pompoms, but this is my favorite way if you don't have a pom pom maker because it makes things a little bit easier um to kind of uh cinch everything together. So I'm just tying my strand of yarn around the middle. And if you happen to have another yarn that is a similar color in a very sturdy yarn, like acrylic or like a crochet cotton or something like that. Something you cannot break with your hands. I would definitely recommend using that because um you do have to pull these pretty tightly. You can also, you can also double up your strand of yarn, which I'm gonna do on the next piece. All right. So I'm just tying a knot right in the middle there on both sides of my piece of cardboard. And if you have a little buddy to help you hold that little knot, it helps you get it a little tighter. Um And then you can grab another strand of yarn, you can even make one of these into a longer strand and do this, um, and use that same strand for the next step if you want to. But I wanted to double my yarn here because I'm a little concerned that this yarn is not gonna be strong enough for tying a knot. Um I, I know it will be because I've done it before, but I, I just don't want to recommend using this with only one strand here at this point. OK. So I'm gonna tie this here and, and I'm gonna twist it because that helps me hold my knot a little bit better and tying that on. There we go. OK. Now I'm gonna hang on to these longer strands and then when I cut this off, actually, I'm gonna slide off here first and then cut my loops. You can cut your loops at this point. Um But then you're gonna have two separate pieces. So I like to just slide those loops off and then let me let that untwist a little bit. Here we go. So I'm gonna tie this once again, but around the whole thing, this is that double strand section that I tied on second. All right. There we go. OK. And this needs to be really tight. I turn that a half a twist so that it hopefully will stay a little better as I tie this knot. And then I like to go around it a second time and tie that in a knot. This, here we go. And now hang on to those double strands in your hands and then we'll just cut this open. You're just going to cut through all the loops to free them. There we go. Now, this pom pom looks crazy, right? It, it needs a haircut. So that's the thing that I really like about pom pom makers is it does, you don't end up wasting quite as much yarn as this because we're gonna have to trim this down and make it into a nice round ball. That's OK. It's actually really fun to do this. So you're just gonna kinda keep turning your pom pom around and really, you don't normally need to cut. I think I maybe missed a couple loops. There, there we go. You don't normally need to cut, you don't normally need to trim through the center through like the equator here, mostly where you need to trim is the top and the bottom. Um That's just because when you're wrapping your yarn around that cardboard, it's just, you know, they're not all gonna be the same length because you start and then you add more and more on top of what you've already wrapped. So they get longer and longer. All right. So we're just gonna continue doing this until it is a very cute round ball. It's very fluffy. It's getting there. It still needs some more trimming. But I think you guys get the picture, you just keep trimming it off until it's nice and round and then you can use these two strands to send them down through two slightly separate paths. And what I mean by that is let me pull this away. Actually, I'm, I'm not sure that you'll be able to see that. But you can put one pom, pom through one little hole between stitches and the other, sorry, one strand of yarn through here and one strand of yarn through here. Just imagine this is the top of your hat. You don't want to put them both through the same hole and tie them to each other because then you're, we'll just pull right back out. So you're gonna send one through here and one, maybe two stitches over like across, across from the very top of the hat. And then you can tie them tightly together at the bottom and then weave those tails into your hat to make it nice and secure so that it will not come out. So right here, you can see, you know, one strand came down here and one strand came there, we tied it and then I wove my yarn tails back and forth there to make it nice and secure. All right. Let me just check and make sure I didn't miss anything here. Uh, let's see. Oh, and Ashley says she's crushing on her Afghan. Awesome. Um, and she's not following a pattern. She's using a bunch of different colors and working on row 58. Awesome. Cool. 62 inch wide. Afghan. That's pretty wide. That looks, that looks like a fun project. All right. Oh, and hi to Cindy. I see that you've joined. Hi, Cindy. I hope you enjoy watching the replay and she says that she's made a bunch of ornaments for holiday gifts last year using roughly the same stitch and color work. Awesome. I bet those were pretty. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for joining me. I hope you guys have fun crafting for the holidays. I hope you guys really enjoy the rest of your summer. Um And th thanks again, you guys for being here and for all your helpful tips. I really appreciate it. I'll see you in my next live. Bye, everybody.