Jan 2023

Hi there! Welcome to my blog

I’m Hayley and I like to make cool warm things!

I make crochet blanket patterns on hookedwithhayley.com and sell the blankets locally. I’m a mum of 5 (4 boys and 1 girl) and have been crocheting and knitting for years.

Just like last time I’m going to be break this up into three sections; Works in progress (WIPs), finished items and new things (and there’s been a lot of finished items this time)

WIPs

My latest WIP is a cardigan that I’ve been working on from this lovely pattern, Fancy Bones. I’ve started and restarted this project quite a few times because I just haven’t found the right yarn for it yet. So, no photos of this one but I will make sure to post an update on the next blog.

My second WIP is a blanket that I’m working on as a part of an order, so no photos of that either (I’m not doing very well with the photos today am I?) Its working up quite fast because it’s a toddler bed size I’m making.

My last WIP is the videos I’ve been working on. I’ve got most of them finished, just one more to make. The editing was easier than I thought it was going to be, but very time consuming. I have a few more technical things to work on before I can share what they are for, but hopefully it’ll be finished soon. In the meantime here’s a photo of the finished blankets I was working on in the videos

Finished Items

I have loads! I had lots of Christmas orders, a few things to make for the kids and even had time to finish some of my WIPs from last time. I’ll try to condense them a bit so its not a massive long blog post.

First thing I finished was the 6 year jumper! I’m absolutely delighted with how it came out, although I’ll admit I did get really confused about how to work the neck so just did my own thing. The fit isn’t perfect and it definitely could’ve been a little longer on the body but he’s happy with it so that’s all that matters.

Every winter I make the kids hats, so this year I decided to make simple ones (because I was so busy) I also made my brother and his family hats for Christmas. I thought it would be funny if they had cow hats since they sell beef and vegetables from their farm at local farmers markets. Here’s their website. I used this pattern for them. Its my go to pattern for all things hat.

A friend asked me to make her some Grinch toys for Christmas Eve boxes so I made these three. I used a 5mm hook and 3 strands of DK yarn for the bigger ones and a 4mm hook with a single strand of DK for the smaller one. I used this pattern, which was really easy to follow and turned out really cute. So cute in fact that I ended up making another for a friend who raffled him off at work to raise funds for a local charity!

I also made a few toys for the kids. The giraffe was a larger version of the first crochet toy I ever made. My son takes his little giraffe toy everywhere with him. The yarn ends are falling out, its stained and generally looks awful but he loves it so I though he was due an upgrade! I used this pattern from Lion Brand with a few modifications.

My youngest son wanted 2 lambs for Christmas so I found this pattern and made 2 different coloured lambs.

The last of the toys was this ‘unicorn’ I made for my daughter. I made this from a picture she drew and thought it was really cool. I wasn’t sure whether or not to add a mane and tail, but after asking anyone who would listen long enough everyone said the same thing, ‘If it’s not in her drawing don’t add it to the toy’. The first thing she said when she opened it was ‘why hasn’t it got hair’ Face palm moment! I’m sure she’ll love it when she’s a bit older but she missed the point of it entirely. Never mind, it was a cool idea and something I can revisit in the future. There was no pattern for it, I just made it up as I worked.

I also managed to get another blanket finished which is available in the shop. This was the last of my Christmas orders so I was really pleased to get them all done on time.

The last of my finished items is a random make. Having 5 kids, it can be quite hard to stay on top of the washing, especially socks. They tend to fall to the bottom of the wash basket and before you know it no one has clean socks. About a year ago I decided I’d fix this problem by making some sort of container just for dirty socks, but it had to be a sock monster, otherwise it would just be boring. I spent ages trying to figure out what a sock monster actually looked like, even asking the kids for ideas. It finally hit me in that weird time between Christmas and New Year when no one knows what day of the week it is, what if it was a sock - monster. So here’s my sock monster, which would work perfectly if I can only train my kids to actually use it! There’s no pattern, just a lot of swearing, frogging and trying again (especially with the heel that I was convinced needed to lay flat, but ultimately gave up on after 7 attempts)

New Things

All that leaves now is New Things!! The coolest new thing I have is my personalised rulers! I got them made from by this awesome local shop and wish I’d thought of them before I recorded all my videos! They are really well made and just all round awesome. I’ll link the website here.

I got a few books for Christmas but haven’t really had a chance to use them much so will try to make something with them for the next blog so I can do a little bit of a review on them. What crochet books do you have that you’d recommend?

That’s it for this time, hopefully I’ll have more finished items to show you next time!