Boo-Ya 2017!

I know I'm about five days late but I'm still super excited for 2017.

Christmas 2016 brought with it a Messy Bun Hat invasion.  I've tried my hand at it as well.

A friend wanted one similar to one she saw in a photo.  The original poster had no idea where it was from so I did a little digging.  The hat I saw originated from Stacey Thorngren.  Stacey has never written a pattern before but the hat got such a following that she made one, posted it and was charging $5 for the pattern.  I generally will NOT purchase a $5 pattern for anything.  I made an exception for my friend.  Though it seemed simple enough to re-create, I wanted to use the original from the original creator.

Stacey uses a different yarn than I have but I found the colors from the Red Heart Unforgettable series are gorgeous and work very well so I used that.  I made four hats from this yarn before I realized that 1) It's really a thin yarn to make a warm hat from 2) I live in a small town so the only place to get yarn locally is Walmart.  Within a visit or two they were out of the color I use and didn't expect more in for a while.  I had a couple of orders come in after that so I switched to Lion Brand Landscapes. By far, the most popular colors so far are Desert Sunrise and Mountain Spring.

I (badly) blotted out my bright green hair tie. 

After purchasing the original pattern, I noticed many others for free.  I got a pattern specifically for Unforgettable yarn, which was pretty too and now is gone in the infinite internet... IE, I can't find it anywhere. Now I use a combination of both patterns.  I attempted to clean up the pattern for the originator and messaged her a copy of the one I'd done for her to help her out.  She has, a month later, still not responded but has updated about 6 times and to be honest... it's still not worth $5 for the pattern.  Sorry Stacey.  I liked how the free pattern gave me a better way to judge the length of the band before I work upward but I like the overall idea of how Stacey made the hat look.  Again, this is why I use a combination.  Also, still being honest, she's got a small head like I do so her idea of how to do the messy bun hat is only really for people with the noggin of a teenage girl ... about 19-20" circ.

I've seen some of the chunky versions of the hat go for as much as $40 on Etsy but I'm not that kind of gal.  I like to make my items accessible to everyone and keep it low enough in cost that folks come back. I sell mine for $15 each.  I currently have two in the Desert Sunrise/Mountain Spring combo and one that is a solid teal-like color called Peacock by I Love This Yarn brand.  I'm working on another.  I really liked the Metropolis (black/grey) colors but they're all so pretty.

I'm hoping that 2017 will be bigger and better!  For the summer time, I'll be doing loads more barefoot sandals.  Those were fun.  :D

If you have ideas for things I should try, let me know in the comments.
I hope your 2017 is truly blessed!