Stash down challenge 2012: Day 18 — A crochet beard and helmet for Simon

I had a lovely weekend, and as part of that weekend loveliness, I managed to keep up with my African flower hexagon crochet meditation.

Here here is hexagon ten:

African flower crochet hexagon with a yellow border
My tenth African flower crochet hexagon mediation

here is hexagon eleven:

African flower crochet hexagon with a teal border
My eleventh African flower crochet hexagon mediation

and here is a photo of all the hexagons completed so far:

An African flower crochet hexagon meditation
Day 11 of my African flower hexagon meditation

In addition to keeping up with my crochet meditation, I also got a start on a Christmas gift for one of my children.

In June of 2010, my son Simon sent me this photo of a crocheted beard and beanie that had had found while surfing the internet:

Taraduff’s Bearded Beanie
Taraduff’s Bearded Beanie

The crochet beanie and beard are the work of crochet designer Taralee Duffin who describes herself at twitter as “a SAHM that loves fashion, cooking, gardening and crocheting!”

In addition to the more traditional beard and beanie pictured above (and available for sale at her etsy store: taraduff), Taralee Duffin also designed a pattern for the folks at Eisenbrauns.

Founded by Jim and Merna Eisenbraun in 1975 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Eisenbrauns is (according to wikipedia) “an international academic publisher specializing in the ancient Near East and biblical studies,” and while the topics of interest might, on the surface, seem to be a bit dry, the Eisenbrauns are not without a sense of humor, as evidenced by the “Our Silly Side” tab at the company website.

Now the reason I learned any of this is that in searching for a beard to crochet for my son, I came across this pattern for an Assyrian helmet and beard — a masterpiece that was designed by the same Taralee Duffin who designed the beard and beanie featured in the image my son shared with me so long ago.

Once I found the pattern, I wanted to get started immediately, and because it is my stash down challenge month, rather than going out and purchasing the recommended yarns, I ventured into my yarn annex to find something suitable, and in very short order I emerged with a tweeded gray from the Red Heart Super Saver line to use for the helmet:

The start of an Assyrian crochet helmet
I begin work on the Assyrian crochet helmet

and this vintage gold from the stash I purchased in late October of 2011:

gold vintage yarn
Vintage yarn from my stash for the Assyrian crochet beard

Although I didn’t finish the helmet over the weekend, I was anxious to get a start on the beard with all of it’s wonderful texture stitches. This is how far I got with the beard before the sun set:

The beginning of a crochet beard made with gold vintage yarn
vintage yarn, crochetbug, yarn stash crochet helmet, assyrian crochet helmet, crochet beanie, crochet hat, crochet cap

And here is how the partially completed beard looked with the partially completed Assyrian helmet:

The future Assyrian crochet helmet and crochet beard
Assyrian crochet helmet and crochet beard to-be

And should you dare to make this helmet and beard, please take not of this disclaimer from the Eisenbrauns:

We’ve done our best to make these directions accurate. How- ever, we cannot be responsible for typographical errors, human errors, variations in work by individual crocheters, or angry vassals who may mis- take you for an actual Assyrian warrior. No one said crochet was risk free.