Dalek-Inspired Hat Pattern

It's been a nearly a year since I first made my dalek gloves, so I thought I'd have a try making a matching hat.

There are several versions of hats that look like the top of the dome of the dalek, so I thought that making another one of those would be a bit redundant.  It's also really hard to make a version that has the bobbles at the bottom due to the need to taper the hat at the top.  Instead, I opted for a more abstract design where the bobbles and the stripes are side-by-side.  I think this makes for a more subtle design that still has the elements of a dalek in it.

Unfortunately, making the pattern of alternating squares requires a number of strands of wool to be in use at a time.  It also means that there will be a LOT of ends to tuck in when you're done.  The pattern can be worked with just two strands, but it leaves the back a lot uglier, and you have to be really careful with tension.

The pattern is available both at my etsy store, or on Ravelry.  The pattern is of intermediate difficulty, and is for a large women's/medium men's sized hat, with instructions to make smaller and larger sizes.  I also have a couple of already made pairs on etsy, and am happy to do custom orders

T.A.R.D.I.S. - Inspired Fingerless Gloves

After making the Dalek gloves, it was only a matter of time before I got the urge to make a pair of matching T.A.R.D.I.S. gloves.  After several false starts (making horizontal lines that stand out in crochet is quite difficult!), I ended up with something I'm happy with.  I couldn't decide whether to make them with the sign on the door or not, so I made both.  I like the look of the pair with out best, but the ones with the sign appeal to my sense of accuracy.

The pattern is available both at my etsy store, or on Ravelry.  The pattern is of intermediate difficulty, and is for medium/large women's sized gloves, with instructions to make smaller and larger sizes.  I also have a couple of already made pairs on etsy, and am happy to do custom orders

Gluten-Free Dalek Smash Cake and Lemon Sour Cream Cake Recipe

My partner and I have our birthdays two days apart, so the last couple of years we've had a joint costume party.  Last years theme was video games, and I spent weeks making decorations, about half of which are still up a year later.

If I remember rightly, the guitar hero song was Sweet Child of Mine, on the basis that it always has to be played ad nauseum at parties, but I didn't want to actually listen to it at mine.

(I was dressed up as Toadette.)

This years party was movie-themed, and I dressed up as Sara from the labyrinth.  I made the waistcoat by getting a plain white vest, stenciling on the pattern in pencil then painting over it.

My favourite part of the night was the cake.  It took me three days to make (mostly because I was organised and made it in stages), but ended up amazing.  It was a Dalek smash cake, which I made following the instructions here (I know that Doctor Who is technically not movie themed - though the eighth Doctor was in a movie.  The cake is just too awesome to care!).

If you don't know what a smash cake is, basically the top half of the cake is a hollow chocolate dome that is supposed to be smashed open before eating the cake:

Inside there were the brains of the Dalek.  Delicious, gummy brains!  Plus, the entire cake (which was lemon sour cream) as well as the 'plunger' and the eye were gluten-free!  It would be just as easy to make it dairy-free as well by using dark chocolate, the right sort of cookie and making an appropriate cake.  My Dalek is a bit on the short side compared to the one in the tutorial, but that has more to do with the fact that I had to use a rectangular pan rather than a square pan for the base so did not have a lot of mix to give it height, rather than it being flat because it's gluten-free.

Because he was so short, I couldn't use chocolate buttons as the Dalek bumps.  Instead, I just piped them using chocolate icing.  I also didn't use liquorish for the black bits.  Liquorish contains wheat, plus it's gross.  I added black food colouring to the chocolate icing and piped that on as well.

I found the recipe for the cake somewhere online a few years ago, but I can't seem to find it again so I thought I'd post it here as it's a really good one.  To make the Dalek, I made a double batch.

GF Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Ingredients

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (125 g) sour cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

zest of 1+ lemon

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cup gf flour - 2 parts rice, 1 part corn, 1 part tapioca

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xantham/guar gum

1/2 tsp salt

• Whisk eggs and sugar together until it gets stiff and forms ribbons
• Add sour cream, vanilla, zest, juice and butter and mix through
• Add dry ingredients and mix well
• Bake at 180°C for 30 min for cake, or 15-20 min for cupcakes

Icing

1 cup icing sugar

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

~2 tsp oil

Food colouring

boiling water

• Mix icing sugar, lemon juice, oil and food colouring together
• Add boiling water slowly until icing is reasonably thick

This cake is also really good with cream cheese icing (Definitely my favourite icing)

250 g cream cheese

3 Tsp butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 Tsp lemon juice

2 cups icing sugar

• Mix cream cheese, butter, vanilla and lemon juice together until smooth
• Add icing sugar and mix well

Pinwheel Stripes Fingerless Gloves

I made these gloves (and a matching hat) for my little sister's 13th birthday present.  They're quick and easy to make - not counting a couple of false starts, it took me two evenings to make them.

Gloves

The pattern is worked in a series of cluster stitches:

Stitches

9 st cluster:  *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, draw yarn through the stitch, draw through first 2 loops on hook*, repeat * * 8 more times (10 loops on hook).  Yarn over, draw through all 10 loops, ch1.

5 st cluster: *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, draw yarn through the stitch, draw through first 2 loops on hook*, repeat * * 4 more times (6 loops on hook).  Yarn over, draw through all 6 loops, ch1.

4 st cluster: *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, draw yarn through the stitch, draw through first 2 loops on hook*, repeat * * 3 more times (5 loops on hook).  Yarn over, draw through all 5 loops, ch1.

If unfamiliar with making cluster stitches (which is basically like making a series of half-finished dc,  drawing a loop through them to join them together and closing with a ch st), you can find some good pictorial examples here and here, and a video here.

Pattern 

Using a 7 mm crochet hook and 8 ply yarn.

r1  33 Foundation sc in black. ch2, turn. (Note: I had to use extra turning crochet so that the edges of the piece did not end up too tight) 

r2  sc,  *skip next 3 st, 9 dc in next st, skip next 3 st, sc*, repeat * * to end. Change to blue. ch2, turn.

r3  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * 2 more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. ch4, turn.

r4  4 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc. *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * 2 more times. 5 dc into central stitch of cluster.  Change to black. ch2, turn

r5  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end

r6  sc.  *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * to end.  Change to blue.  ch2, turn

r7-13  repeat r3-6.  Tie off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Sewing up

With wrong sides together, sew the edges of rows 1 and 13 together so that the centres of the clusters match up.  Sew halfway (two clusters), then tie off for the thumb hole.  From the other end, sew down one cluster length and tie off.  Tuck in ends both along the seam and along the edges.

As you will get a slightly different effect depending on whether it is row 2 or row 13 that is on the palm side of the thumb hole, it makes a difference which end of the glove you make the thumb hole on (At least, it does to perfectionists like me!).  Bear that in mind when it comes to sewing up, and you will need to do your sewing from opposite ends to make your gloves true enantiomers!

Edging and Thumb

Turn the piece the right side out. Tie on at the seam and work two lines of sc around both the top and bottom edges of the gloves.  I found that 23 st (5 across each of the half-clusters, 2 at the smaller black parts and 4 at the seam part) made a nice edging that wasn't too tight or too loose.

For the thumb, work 13 sc around the thumb hole starting a the bottom.  Join, ch3, 2 dc dec, 4 dc, 2 dc dec.  Join, ch1, sc around.  Join and tie off.  Tuck in ends

Pinwheel Stripes Hat

A few months ago I made a pair of gloves for a colleague to replace one she had lost.  I was left with a couple of half-used balls of a super soft merino wool, which I used to make this hat (which is available at my etsy store).  I also made a version with larger squares in blue and black for my little sister's 13th birthday (along with a pair of matching gloves).  Instructions for both are given below.

Hat

The main pattern below is for the purple and pink hat, which has smaller squares and more stripes.  The pattern in square brackets is for the blue and black hat.  The pattern is worked in a series of cluster stitches:

Stitches

9 st cluster:  *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, draw yarn through the stitch, draw through first 2 loops on hook*, repeat * * 8 more times (10 loops on hook).  Yarn over, draw through all 10 loops, ch1.

5 st cluster: *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, draw yarn through the stitch, draw through first 2 loops on hook*, repeat * * 4 more times (6 loops on hook).  Yarn over, draw through all 6 loops, ch1.

4 st cluster: *yarn over, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, draw yarn through the stitch, draw through first 2 loops on hook*, repeat * * 3 more times (5 loops on hook).  Yarn over, draw through all 5 loops, ch1.

cluster dec: 4 dc into centre of next cluster, tr into sc, 4 dc into centre of next cluster.

If unfamiliar with making cluster stitches (which is basically like making a series of half-finished dc,  drawing a loop through them to join them together and closing with a ch st), you can find some good pictorial examples here and here, and a video here.

Pattern 

Using a 5.5 [7] mm crochet hook and 8 ply yarn.

r1  119 [95] Foundation sc in purple [black], sl st to join bottom of last stitch with the bottom of the first stitch to close the ring, sc, join at top of first st. ch1, don't turn

r2  sc,  *skip next 3 st, 9 dc in next st, skip next 3 st, sc*, repeat * * to end. Change to dark pink [blue]. Join with a sl st, ch2, turn. 15 [12] clusters 

r3  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * 13 [10] more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. Join with a sl st, ch3, turn.  15 [12] clusters

r4  4 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc. *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * 13 [10] more times. 5 dc into central stitch of joining cluster.  Change to light pink [black]. Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  15 [12] clusters

r5  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end.  Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  15 [12] clusters 

r6  sc.  *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * to end.  Change to white [blue].  

Join with a sl st, ch2, turn.  15 [12] clusters

r7  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * 13 [10] more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. Join with a sl st, ch3, turn.  15 [12] clusters

r8  4 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc. *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * 13 [10] more times. 5 dc into central stitch of joining cluster.  Change to purple [black]. Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  15 [12] clusters

Decreasing

 These instructions are for the pink and purple hat only.

r9  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end.  Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  15 clusters

r10  sc.  *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * 4 more times, cluster dec, sc. *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * * 4 more times, cluster dec, sc. Change to dark pink.  

Join with a sl st, ch2, turn.  12 clusters

r11  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * 10 more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. Join with a sl st, ch3, turn.  12 clusters

r12  4 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc. *9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, 

 cluster dec, sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * *. 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec, 5 dc into central stitch of joining cluster. Change to light pink. Join with a sl st, ch1, turn. 9 clusters

r13  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end.  Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  9 clusters

r14  *sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec*, repeat * * 2 more times. Change to white. Join with a sl st, ch2, turn.  6 clusters

r15  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * 4 more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. Join with a sl st, ch3, turn.  6 clusters

r16 4 dc into central stich of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec, sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec, 5 dc into central stitch of joining cluster.  Change to purple. Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  4 clusters

r17  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end.  Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  4 clusters

r18  *sc into sc, cluster dec*, repeat.  Join with a sl st. 2 clusters.  Tie off, leaving a long tail.  Thread the tail of yarn through the top loops of all of the stitches of the last row.  Pull tight to close the hole.  Tuck in threads from colour changes.

 These instructions are for the blue and black hat only.

r9  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end.  Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  [12] clusters

r10  *sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec*, repeat * * [2] more times.  Change to [blue].  Join with a sl st, ch2, turn. [9] clusters

r11  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * [7] more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. Join with a sl st, ch3, turn.  [9] clusters

r12  4 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc. *cluster dec, sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc*, repeat * *.  cluster dec, 5 dc into central stitch of joining cluster.  Change to [black]. Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  [6] clusters

r13  sc in last dc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * to end.  Join with a sl st, ch1, turn.  [6] clusters

r14  *sc into sc, 9 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec*, repeat * *. Change to [blue]. Join with a sl st, ch2, turn. [4] clusters

r15  4 st cluster, ch3, sc.  *ch3, 9 st cluster, ch3, sc*, repeat * * [2] more times, ch3, 5 st cluster. Join with a sl st, ch3, turn.  [2] clusters

r16  4 dc into central stitch of cluster, sc into sc, cluster dec, sc into sc, 4 dc into central stitch of next cluster, tr in sc.  Join with a sl st.  [2] clusters.  Tie off, leaving a long tail.  Thread the tail of yarn through the top loops of all of the stitches of the last row.  Pull tight to close the hole.  Tuck in threads from colour changes.Tie off, leaving a long tail.  Thread the tail of yarn through the top loops of all of the stitches of the last row.  Pull tight to close the hole.  Tuck in threads from colour changes.

Dalek-Inspired Gloves

A few months ago, I saw a pattern for an awesome pair of knitted Dalek fingerless gloves (which you can find here).  Being a big Doctor Who fan, I thought they were awesome, as I said.  However, I really don't like knitting.  In the last five years, I think I've only knitted two things - a replacement pair of gloves for a colleague who lost one of her favourites (for which I got paid), and the platinum square of the knitted periodic table (I'm doing a PhD in chemistry, working with Pt.  I had to do it!).  I'm also planning on making some knee-high Doctor Who socks in the next couple of months.  It takes something special like my love of both knee-high socks and Doctor Who to out weigh my loathing of knitting.

Given this, I decided to try and make a crochet version for a friend's birthday present.  You can see the finished results below.  The wrist has a series of 3D "Dalek bumps", while the hand has slightly raised ridges like the bottom of the helmet.

The pattern is available both at my etsy store, or on Ravelry.  The pattern is of intermediate difficulty, and is for medium/large women's sized gloves, with instructions to make smaller and larger sizes.  I also have a couple of already made pairs on etsy, and am happy to do custom orders.