Crochet

Patterns, projects and techniques

BLOGTEST #1 – WEEK 4

by

Fourth week of January, 2010.  Want to win a copy of this book?

crobots book 0409If so, please post an answer to this question, following the contest rules posted below:

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CROCHET TEACHER?  (YES, IT CAN BE YOU, YOURSELF!) Kindly post a link to a site if the your favorite crochet teacher has one.


RULES AND DISCLAIMERS:

This is how it will work.  Each Monday, I’ll pose a question on my blog.  Everyone who answers the questions will be entered in the drawing on the last day of that month.  Some ‘answers’ may require you to post a link to a specific pattern or site.  The winner will be announced along with the next first Monday’s question.  The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with mailing information.  If the winner doesn’t contact me, the prize will be offered on another occasion.

Right now, I have prizes for at least a year!  All good stuff.  I’ll post a description of each month’s prize on that first Monday’s blog article (with the question for the week).  I hope this makes sense.  Look at it as four (and sometimes five) opportunities to enter a prize winning answer each month.

I’m the sole determiner of the winner of each month’s contest.  The drawings will be random as each entrant have her/his name written on a piece of paper and entered into an old piece of Tupperware for the drawing.  Your chance(s) to win will be based on the number of entries each month.

Comments

  1. My favorite crochet teacher isn’t a person but a group. It is Crochet Partners because I can always find someone who does teach to help me if I have a question

  2. My favorite crochet teacher was my Grandmother, Grace. During my summer vacations I would visit her in North Carolina and she would keep me busy with arts and crafts. One day she was crocheting and I begged her to teach me. She had to think about it for a while because I’m left handed. I told her my hands didn’t know the difference so just teach me right handed. She did and I still crochet right handed. Gram Grace is no longer with us but everytime I start a project I think of her.

  3. My favorite teacher is time and practice. I have been finding that going back to an impossible pattern a few weeks later, suddenly makes the pattern possible. Is it me- or is it time? I also find that teaching others to crochet-to read a pattern, to take time, to frog-rip it rip it, to laugh at the mistakes I made, to enjoy the time crocheting makes it more fun for everyone. When it stops being fun for the person, I tell them to stop that project and to start something else for awhile. That the whole purpose of creating something is to enjoy the process. So time is my favorite crochet teacher.

  4. My favorite crochet teacher is actually YouTube. Whenever I’m not quite sure how to do something that I’m trying to do – particularly if the simple drawings in a crochet book don’t make sense – then I just do a search through YouTube. I can almost always find a video from someone out there that makes it clear!

  5. My favorite crochet teacher is my husband. As the youngest to 5 sisters, he learned to crochet from them as a teen. So, he taught me to crochet and I still go to him with questions. I love the personalized instruction from the person I love!

  6. My Aunt Barbara…she’s cranky and precise, which can be daunting. But, having learned from her as a child myself, I can’t deny that my tension and attention to detail (learned directly from her, and her making me tear it out, do it again, it’s not right!) has served me well over the many years since.

    I am way more of a relaxed, hippie kind of teacher, but I’ve never successfully taught anyone how to crochet. Aunt Babs has taught hundreds of people…nobody fails under her strict tutelage!

  7. My grandma! She taught me when I was really little. Now that she’s gone, youtube is a close second. I usually search for whatever it is I need to figure out, whether it was something new, or just a quick refresher 🙂

  8. My favourite crochet teacher is my Mother-in-Law who got me started and me, me, me. 😀 Well apart from when I get to see my MIL I am teaching myself via books and Youtube.

  10. My favorite crochet teacher is my Gran. She first taught me the craft when I was 16 – the summer I spent helping take care of her after a dog knocked her over and her hip and ankle were shattered. I enjoyed it, but didn’t really invest time into developing skills until after college when I was faced with evening time without homework! Now I consult my Gran about patterns, yarn choices and final products. No website for her though! 🙂

  11. My Grandma. I remember when I was in middle school my family went to our cabin over the wintertime. It was snowing like crazy outside. She sat down and taught me, my friend, my two step-brothers (one younger and one older)all to crochet that night. Trying to teach a bunch of tweens to crochet?!? I give her mad props on that. I eventually forgot but am in the process of relearning it again thanks to her :o) No website for her crocheting abilities. She is just an all-around great crafter!

  13. My favorite crochet teachers have always been books. I now belong to a couple of Internet sites that have people willing to help and always do.

  15. My favorite teacher was my mother. I learned with thread and steel needles. I had been crocheting several years before I started crocheting with yarn.

  17. My favorite crochet teacher was my Mom. She taught me when I was 8 years old while home with a sprained ankle in a cast. I learned with crochet thread and a tiny metal hook! I always had something to do growing up. I remember as a child, then teenager, having tons of commisioned work to do.

  19. The internet in general… everything I know about crocheting I learned by googling and surfing the web. :3

  20. My favorite teacher would have to be my mother. She taught me just a few years ago – with lots of patience. Now, I’ve done things that she’s never attempted, but she’s the one that inspired me.

  21. My grandma is the best teacher ever. She spent many volunteer hours at the local elementary school teaching kids to crochet. Of course, she taught me too!

  22. My favorite crochet teacher was the one who taught me when I was only 10 or 11 years old. She stayed with our family and was mostly blind. She would hold her hands over mine and gently manuever them to do the stitches. She crocheted from memory and always made the same afghan pattern over and over. She would tell my mom which colors of yarn to buy and then when she was ready to switch colors she would ask us for help. I think of her everytime I am crocheting.

  23. I am a self taught crocheter. My grandmother started me off with the basic chain stitch. But I learn a lot today from books. Jean Leinhauser is one of my favorites.

  24. maggie righetti! I read her book, crocheting in plain english, and it’ll be the only teaching I’ll ever need!

  25. I want to have something I can look at and go back to when I am stumped, so my favorite crochet teacher are books. I love looking at on-line sites, but for actually doing it, I want that book right there beside me.

  26. I taught myself to crochet when my daughter was born in 1990. I saw some really cute crocheted toys in a magazine that I just had to make for her. Through trial and error (heavy on the error) I learned. I credit it much of it to a Reader’s Digest Needlework book that my inlaws gave me. That book and my own determination and desire to have cute, safe toys for my daughter would be my best teacher.

  27. When I was a kid, my mom taught me how to crochet and I picked up easily. Over the years, I had forgotten how to do it but have recently started teaching myself with books and the net. My mom is still my favorite teacher though.

  28. My favorite crochet teacher is my very best friend Sue. She is still teaching me how to crochet as I’m alittle slow at it, but getting there. Sue is very patient with me. If I get stuck on a pattern, I call her & she is always very keen to help me. Bless her.

Have you read?

Red Melt The Ice Slouch Beanie Crochet Pattern Review

Some crochet projects are made simply because we need a warm hat. Some are made because we need a quick gift, a stash-busting project, or something easy to work on while watching television. And then there are crochet projects that carry a message.

This Red Slouch Beanie Crochet Pattern PDF sits firmly in that last category.

Inspired by the Melt the ICE craftivism movement, this red crochet beanie is more than just a wearable winter accessory. It is a handmade political statement — soft, practical, visible, and rooted in the long tradition of protest through craft.

You can find the Red Slouch Beanie Crochet Pattern PDF here.

Crochet as Protest

Crafters have always had a way of saying things with their hands. Quilts have carried coded messages, embroidery has documented women’s lives, banners have marched through the streets, and yarn crafts have wrapped public spaces in colour and defiance.

This beanie belongs to that same creative lineage.

The phrase Melt the ICE gives this pattern its political edge. It connects the humble red crochet hat to conversations around immigration enforcement, detention, family separation, human rights, community care, and the role ordinary people can play in public protest.

And that is what makes this pattern interesting. It is not loud in the way a placard is loud, but it is visible. A red handmade hat catches the eye. It invites questions. It gives the maker a way to wear their values without needing to shout over anyone.

Sometimes craftivism works because it is disarming. People expect political protest to be hard-edged, but handmade work brings something different to the conversation. It says, “I cared enough to make this stitch by stitch.”

About the Pattern

The pattern itself is beginner-friendly and refreshingly straightforward. The hat is worked flat in rows, then seamed and gathered to create a relaxed slouch beanie shape. That makes it especially approachable for crocheters who are still building confidence with wearable projects.

Instead of needing to work in the round or fuss with crown shaping from the start, you are essentially making a rectangle and turning it into a hat. I love that kind of construction because it gives beginners a real sense of achievement. You are not just practising stitches — you end up with something wearable and meaningful.

The design uses a textured crochet fabric, giving the finished beanie a cozy, slightly chunky look. The slouchy shape keeps it casual and modern, while the bold red colour gives it that unmistakable activist feel.

Why Red Matters

The red yarn is not just a colour choice here. It is part of the visual language of the project.

Red is urgent. Red is warm. Red is visible in a crowd. It can suggest anger, love, warning, solidarity, courage, and care all at once. For a political crochet project, that matters.

A red slouch beanie can be worn to rallies, community events, mutual aid gatherings, craftivism meet-ups, or simply out in everyday life as a quiet statement of support. It is one of those pieces that can be as bold or as subtle as the wearer wants it to be.

Of course, you could make the pattern in any colour, but for the Melt the ICE inspiration, red feels intentional. It gives the hat its message before a single word is spoken.