The charmed cloche was the first crocheted hat that I made for craft market sales. I found the design by Maria Bittner on the Ravelry website, a comprehensive database of patterns and yarns for those who knit and crochet. Back in 2018, I made the charmed cloche in many colours of merino for women, children and babies. Some were cropped short to wear like a beanie. Others were more feminine and decorated with a flower.

I have been getting requests for the charmed cloche again. Eager to experiment and create new looks, I added striping and made flowers from a mix of yarns. In addition to merino wool, I chose a cotton/cashmere yarn for a lighter cloche.

Along the same theme, I made a simple beanie in double crochet using the cotton/cashmere blend. Yarn in a contrasting colour finishes the beanie and mimics a cuff.

I was inspired by the colours of the fall harvest for my latest hat creations. The wide-waled cotton corduroy that I sourced reminds me of kale, aubergine, and sweet potato. Six velvet-like ridges, or parallel “cords”, per inch and a final wash in the manufacturing process give this corduroy a vintage look and feel. A cotton plaid serves as lining fabric for the bucket hats shown.

Now imagine cranberries, Brussels sprouts, and Hubbard squash. The “Vee Beanie” is crocheted with a single-ply merino, alpaca, and silk blend. The pattern features a no-space double crochet V stitch. The end result is soft and feminine with button detailing.

On September 22nd, 2022 at 6:03 pm, the autumn equinox will usher in the beginning of fall in the northern hemisphere. We can look forward to the bounty of harvests, vibrant leaf colours, shorter days, and crisp air.

How will you welcome fall? If you like to get outside in nature, stay cozy and warm with knitwear—a sweater, a scarf, a hat. Here are some hats I crocheted for the coming cooler days. I chose richer colours and warmer fibres. I also gravitated towards variegated and tweedy yarn.

With more than 70 vendors, the Fibrations Festival extended from the lawn outside Fernwood Community Centre to its gymnasium. “Hats by Tracy J” was indoors, alongside a dozen fibre artists. We had a steady flow of shoppers, especially in the morning.

Many shoppers were strategic. They would begin with a preliminary circle of the entire venue to get a sense of what was offered. Then they would loop back to the tables that interested them.

Each of the vendors donated something of their making for a raffle. These donated prizes were displayed under a big tent. They showed the wide variety of fibre artistry at the festival, including the hand-dyed, spun, woven, silk-screened, sewn, knitted and crocheted.

I enjoyed meeting and talking with like-minded people. Both vendors and customers shared an appreciation of fine quality raw materials and unique handcrafted goods.

Hats by Tracy J will be participating at the 2022 Fibrations Festival in Victoria, British Columbia on Sunday, August 21st, 10 am to 5 pm. Please come by Table #4 in the gymnasium at Fernwood Community Centre to say hello and try on a hat or two!

This annual free event will be held both outdoors on the Stephenson Park field and inside the gymnasium. There will be over 70 vendors: makers and crafters in weaving, dyeing, felting, knitting, stitching, basketry, and other fibre arts.

For more information on Fibrations Festival, check out: https://www.kbnfibres.ca

Cotton textile comes from the fluffy cream-coloured fibres of the cotton boll. The fibres that wrap around the seeds of the boll are separated in the mechanical process of ginning and cleaned before being carded and combed. Aligned and straightened fibres are then spun into cotton yarn that can be woven or knitted into fabric. While cotton is grown in many areas of the world, the best quality cotton comes from places where there is plenty of rainfall or irrigation during the growing season and a dry warm picking season.

I’ve spent the past few months sewing with a variety of cotton fabrics. Plaids are a favourite and I was introduced to Hawaiian palaka, a plaid or checkered cotton. It first appeared on the islands in the form of a loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirt worn by western sailors. The shirt was sturdy and durable and was adopted by plantation workers. In the past, navy was the only option, but now palaka is made as a lighter weight and is available in many colours.

Navy and cream and traditional Japanese designs feature in many Sevenberry cotton fabrics. Kasuri is a Japanese word for fabric that has fibres dyed with specific patterns and images in mind. Above, the medium weight Sevenberry fabrics with dots and circles are Kasuri. Below, the reversible bucket hat was sewn with a Sevenberry cotton with a traditional wave design on one side and cotton denim on the other.

The weekend newspaper featured a crochet bucket, one of “Fab Five” summer hats presented by Rebecca Tay. The powdery pastel rainbow colours remind me of fun childhood chalk and sidewalk hopscotch. I created a similar hat in a warm beige tweedy blend of merino wool, cashmere, and silk. Different but similar.

The Rolled Brim Bucket Hat and Everyday Bucket Hats below are started with a “magic circle” and crocheted in a continuous spiral from the top down. The result is a seamless hat with a neat finish.

The short brim and bell shape of the Everyday Bucket Hat has a playful aesthetic and looks especially good on women with short hair. The hat is more fitted and resembles a 1920s cloche or flapper hat. Cotton cashmere makes this hat a soft and easy care option.

“Many, many years ago, Eisaku Noro took a leap of faith. Trusting his experience and knowledge, his instincts and determination, he envisioned creating a yarn like no other. So many exuberant entrepreneurial moments like this end without success, but not this one. We can only imagine how hard Mr. Noro worked to market a yarn so overtly individual and carve a growing niche in a hand-knitting market dominated by single-color balls and skeins.” (noromagazine.com)

This cool wet spring in Vancouver got me stuck in neutral, thinking a lot about rain gear and wool hats. And yet, I have also felt uplifted by the colours of flower gardens that abound in blues, purples, pinks, and yellows. The vibrant multi-coloured Noro yarns fit my mood right now.

I designed a toque pattern that uses a half double crochet stitch in the “third loop”. It’s a simple, repetitive stitch that results in a ridge of V shapes. It shows off the rainbow of colours within each ball of plush Noro Bachi wool. I love seeing how the colours evolve as the hat progresses and how each finished hat is unique.

The inaugural Dunbar Salmonberry Craft Fair is taking place on Saturday, May 28, 2022, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM at Dunbar Community Centre, 4747 Dunbar Street, Vancouver, B.C. Please come by my table, “Hats by Tracy J”, and check out my warm weather headwear collection.

Bucket hats and newsboy caps in cottons and linens will be featured. Kerchiefs will make their debut. As usual, there will be a large assortment of crocheted hats and bamboo rayon beanies and headbands.

While I’ve made many hats for grownups, young ones need to keep their heads warm and faces protected from the sun too. If you’re a parent, you might have experienced a kid itching to tear off a hat. This might be avoided with hats that are comfy, hard wearing and well fitting. Washable natural materials are good choices.

“Everyone thinks my baby is a boy because she is bald!” How fitting to correct that misconception with an adorable headband or a hat. Take note that no longer is blue for boys nor pink for girls.

Have you observed that babies have large heads in proportion to their bodies? An interesting tidbit: The average head circumference of a one year old is 43.5 cm. The head of a tween ranges between 51-56 cm, not much smaller than that of a woman at 53-58.5 cm.