June 2013 #1 - Flower Bucket

You may have noticed that this is a repeated hat pattern from June 2012 and wondering why I was counting it as a new pattern? Because it isn't, and even though it is my own silly rule about what I blog about and what I don't I've chosen to feature this hat as my first hat of the month because I've not done a hand sewn felted embellishment like this before. So I'm adding this one as something new on a technicality.

The pattern, A Better Bucket by Amy Swenson, is available as a Ravelry download. I used Hobby Lobby I Love This Cotton! in Spunky Print on a size 7 16" circular needle and a set of 7 dpns. Stitches used are knit, purl, k2tog, kfb and a provisional cast on. I used the crochet cast on method as described in Knit Speak by Adrea Berman Price. Again, the cast one was a bit slow, but that's just me. As much as I love this hat, I feel that it really needs something. A button, an embellishment of some kind. So even though I've had the hat finished for quite some time, and I knew I wanted to do something with purple, I never got around to actually finishing it. The flower is hand sewn with embroidery floss (because I couldn't find my glue gun). The green leaves and large purple petals are the same size. I added a seam down the middle of the petals to give them some depth. I them added two additional layers of smaller petals adjusting the sizes as I went and topping them off with a purchased pre-formed yellow felt button. The flower is backed on a circle and then a safety pin is sewn on in order to allow for it's removal so that the hat can still be washed if needed.