Happy Valentine's!

First of all, before talking about the hat and coat patterns, I have to say that here in Spain we began to celebrate this day relatively late, that is in mid XX century. There is a popular rumour that a well-known Spanish department store began to publicise this festive day to incentive sales.

Anyway, I like to do some research when I don't know anything or know a little about a particular subject. What I've found out is that there is a bunch of legends mixed with facts about when this celebration day has its origin and how it has evolved.

In summary: it began before the Christian Era as a pagan fertility festival, became a Christian festivity in the 5th century and it's widely accepted that Geoffrey Chaucer, a middle age English writer, was the first one to link Valentine's Day to romantic love. Since then, what began as passing simple love-notes has evolved to a highly commercialised event where people spend huge amounts of money in buying cards, flowers, chocolates and even jewellery.

In my opinion (take it as a personal thought and don't be hard on me, for Clone's sake!) I love to celebrate Love but all this paraphernalia makes my fish brain a little confused and arise some questions: 

Why do I have to celebrate Love in a specific date? 

Is it to make it easier for people to say "I love you? Is it that hard?

Why do I have this uncomfortable feeling that when Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, etc. comes there's a huge neon sign in front of my nose saying " buy, buy, buy..."?

Don't get me wrong, we like to celebrate Valentine's Day at home by, e.g., making a special dish for dinner, when we are all together, and a handmade love-o-gram ( that's the closest translation for "cariñograma" that I've found) for our loved ones.

Anyway, for "the love of my Blythe girl" I've crocheted a hat and a coat for her with loads of hearts. The original pattern for the hat has been designed by Teresa Richardson from Crochet Geek and you can read it here. I've adapted the pattern to Blythe's head size as follows:

Materials:

- Yarn for 2.5 mm hook ( mine was a blend of wool and acrylic from Tiger Stores in fuchsia and pink).

- 2,5 mm hook.

- Tapestry needle.

- Stitch marker (optional).

- Scissors.

Pattern:

The hat measurements:  10.4 inches circumference and 3.8 inches high.

•  Make a 59 DC foundation and join with invisible join (60 sts in total). If necessary adapt the number of sts to obtain the desired length ( you will need a multiple of 3).
• Ch 1 and work 1 fpdc and 2 bpdc all the way around. Repeat for another round (60 DC). Join with a slp st to the first st of the previous round and cut off the yarn.
• Attach the new colour to the top of any of any st, ch1 and sc in the same st, work 1 sc in every doc of the previous round and continue working sc in the round for about 22 rounds or until you reach the desired height. 

Note: I like to attach the new colour 2-3 sts before the joining st of the previous colour to weave in the tail of the first colour on-the-go.

• Cut a long tail of yarn (you can try it on before cutting), thread the tapestry needle and turn the hat inside out. Sew the hat skipping 6-7 sts on each side and flip it right side out.
• Corners of the hat: attach the yarn to any of the unworked sts and work 6-7 sc for 3 rounds, join with a slp st and cut off some extra yarn to weave it through the last round, pull the top shut and weave in the tail in the wrong side. You can attach tassels or pom-poms to the corners of the hat.

There are tons of patterns of small hearts so choose one, make a bunch of them and sew them to your hat.

As for the coat, bear in mind that this is a "prototype". I have to modify and polish it before the release so you'll have to wait a little bit :)

That's all for today, which is no small thing!

See you next Friday!