Avril Grass Hat

The Japanese Avril Grass Hat Saga

You know that thing about buying yarn when you are on holiday, and then never getting round to using it? Every time you go through your stash (or in my case, check the “ornaments” on the top of your shelving unit), there’s a little bit of guilt about not having done anything with the special purchase.

This particular one came from a work trip to Tokyo. I’ve only been there twice – both times relatively short work trips. After the first trip, I was talking to a friend who said that if I went out again, I just had to stop by this very special yarn store Avril. Their main store was in Kyoto (the one that she had visited) but they also had a sister store in the outskirts of Tokyo.

Turns out Avril is no longer open – which is so sad, it was a one-of-a-kind yarn store.

Anyway, on my second work trip I flew out a couple of days early, so I could do a bit of sightseeing but mainly so I could find my way out to Avril. It was an interesting experience just getting there. In the days before Tokyo hosted the Olympics, there really wasn’t much english on signs, or on ticket machines – so just finding out where to go, finding out how to buy a train ticket – it was all a bit of an adventure. But so worth it. Never seen a yarn shop like it. Avril focussed on unusual fibres (think metal, paper as well as the things we are used to), all the yarn was on cones, and most things were very fine – too fine for hand knitting as-is. They served weavers as well as knitters and crocheters. When you chose what you wanted (often times mixing a few different strands together) they would measure it off the cones and optionally twist it together for you while winding it onto your own cone.

I bought two “projects” of yarn. One was yarn for a hand knit sweater (still not started). The other – the one this post is about – was a design of theirs for a crochet hat that looks like it’s made of grass. Three strands of Avril yarn – one fine linen, one cotton tape, and one “grass” (plastic grass-like fronds sticking out from a thin cotton yarn). I got the pattern with the yarn – of course it was in Japanese, but at the time I was totally convinced I could remember what I had been told and mainly it was all about following a chart anyway. I mean, how hard could it be?

Well, needless to say, that yarn ended up sitting as an ornament in my apartment for 4 years. Until it was rediscovered in a fit of clearing up, and the guilt kicked in, and I decided it was time. I got it down from the shelf, opened up the pattern, took a deep breath, and started to try to figure out what it meant.

Firstly, I have to say – “hats off” to Google translate! That was the first tool I used to get deciphering. Just take a picture of part of the page, and see what it could do. Some things didn’t translate literally very well – but it was good enough to give me an overview of the pattern and remind me what I had been told. Second life-saver was that most of the pattern was in chart form (as with most Japanese patterns) and you can just google “japanese crochet symbols” and get a good translation of Japanese symbols to US crochet terminology. I then had to translate US to UK crochet terminology of course (one of the most annoying things about crochet patterns, imho – why do we still have different meaning for simple concepts like single crochet, double crochet…?) – and then I had to google a few videos to learn how to do some of the things I couldn’t remember how to do (best increase and decrease strategies, for example).

Now with a reasonable idea of what I needed to do, I picked up a crochet hook and tried to start. Very quickly, I realised that my crochet skills were a bit rusty and although I could make it through most patterns with a single, well-behaved yarn, it was a very different story when trying to crochet with 3 strands held together, one of which had a ton of plastic “grass” hanging off it. I could hardly see the individual stitches and wasn’t sure I was sticking my hook in the right places. My solution? Detour to another crochet project (with simpler yarn) of course, to get my skills back and increase my comfort level, before continuing with the precious Avril yarn.

Three weeks or so later, once I’d got that cushion cover finished, I finally got going on crocheting the grass hat. It wasn’t so difficult – I’d got my crochet mojo back. I had to re-check the japanese instructions a few times and make a few guesses – eg “thin stitch” I translated as slip stitch in the end – but otherwise, plain sailing. It didn’t take too long, and it was a fun project.

Unfortunately, the hat is a little big… Guess my gauge was off a little, but I think I’d have struggled to crochet tighter with those 3 strands of interesting yarn.

Not sure if it will ever get worn outside the house – by me or anyone else. Might have to buy a hat stand so I can display it as an ornament in my flat again. But at least this time it’ll be displayed as a Finished Object.