Some hats in black and green (mostly)

[magid]

Thanksgiving weekend, I was invited to a "dinosaur disco" party, which somehow inspired me to make this hat, with a ridge along the top and scales that I thought ended up more fishlike than I'd intended. Still fun, even though it wore a bit more like one of those decorated 50s swim caps than I wanted.

dino fish

I really liked the color combination, and realized that the wavy top could be useful turned into a longer ridge-line below the rest of the hat, becoming a scarf-hat.

fish hat scarf

That got me thinking about my usual hat shape, with a flat rather than rounded top, and how a squiggle of taller color would look. Very tall, as it turns out; I have to wear this at a tilt.

salamander crew

The next iteration was the same shape, but with a spiral up the hat that got taller. I think I need to block the hat to make the taller stitches have some chance of standing up.

spiral tower 1

Because that one looked so much more cluttered than I'd envisioned, I tried a spiral with fewer turns, that only got tall towards the middle.

spiral tower 2

Now I'm considering another hat with these colors, perhaps with side ruffles or fins, or experimenting more with layers of single crochet in spirals/squiggles instead of using taller stitches.

Oh, earlier this week I realized that some of my purple yarns went together, and I still wanted to use spirals from the previous hats, which is how I ended up with this one. (Note: there is a spiral of purple variegated yarn around the top and down the brim, visible in other photos on Ravelry.)

purple spiral

Last night I got a call from a friend who needed my assistance, suggesting I bring yarn. I'd been dithering about a next project (I need more yarn inspiration). With the impetus of a bunch of crochet time, I figured out something that would be satisfying. I used up some pink yarn and much of the purple.

tea rose bouquet with grape twist

Comments

[cellio]

Oh those are nifty! I especially like salamander and spiral 2.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think I might do another salamander permutation with rows of single crochet instead of one row of triple or quadruple. Though I'm not sure when I'll make it out to the yarn store, since my car has transmogrified itself to a non-working doorstop... :-(

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I LOVE spiral 2. (the others are nifty, too, those colors are awesome)

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Yes! Spiral 2 is my favorite by far, though they're all nifty.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've been debating what sort of direction to head next, so knowing that both of you like that one particularly is really useful.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've been debating doing more permutations on this sparer version, and your and Treacle_well's opinion makes me think that's a useful direction to go :-).

[megmuck.livejournal.com]

Spiral tower 2 looks like a pagoda to me. Consider doing another one in fire-red and black.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of a pagoda shape; neat.

Currently I don't have enough plain red to make another spiral tower hat, but I do have a variegated red yarn that might work.