oh man, I want a bucket hat!

 

Chicknits' Bottoms Up bucket hats in Cotton Tots

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Boy buckets are all done. S made his mommy proud by wearing his out for a stroll yesterday. B wasn't doing me any favors though. Look at that devilish little grin. And don't think he doesn't mean it either!

S looks pretty smashing in his bucket hat, don't you think? Of course B's pretty darned cute even while smashing his hat to the ground.

And here B is trying to give his hat to his brother. "You hat?"

A big merci buckets to Bonne Marie for such a super stylish little pattern. I like this Bottoms Up version much better than the original Bucket o' Chic, which was too fiddly for lazy old me. Once I got past my initial frustrations, it only took a day for me to make each bucket hat, so in the end they really did fly off my needles! Thanks also to Becky for coming up with a fun knitalong to get me bucketing. And more thanks to my Secret Pal, who sent the Cotton Tots yarn, which although a little stiff and hard on the hands in those brim garter stitch rounds, was really perfect for these bucket hats. They hold their shape perfectly, are just the right colors and I expect they will wear well.

Mommy bucket coming soon!

My bucket has ears!

Second bucket hat underway. I'm magic-looping the crown and should have it done in time for the good weather later this week. The first one was a great success in the end, although neither of the boys will wear it. So what's a mother to do? Make another one, of course. Now both of the boys will have handknitted bucket hats to tear off their heads and toss on the ground. Yay!

Encouraged by my relative success with the frankensweater, I decided to pick up my bottoms up bucket hat where I left off and give it another try. It's looking like a pretty fair approximation of a bucket hat now, dont'cha think?

I hadn't frogged what I had already knit, so I took a long hard look at it to see what was keepable. I liked how the brim looked and there was no way I was going to reknit it unless I had to (owie!), so I ripped out the few post-brim rows I'd done and added another couple rows to the brim, including another decrease row. I'm hoping now that it'll be small enough to fit one of the boys, like I had originally planned.

Onward and upward!

Well, I gave the bottoms up a try and I am utterly frustrated. This bucket pattern does not "fly off my needles" at all. It took me over two hours to do about eight rows on the brim. And I've got calluses on my fingers from working a double strand of the yarn that tight on such small needles. Then when I finally made it to the main section, it's way (and I mean way) too big. Why does this pattern hate me so much? Am I the only one who is miserable making this thing? (Okay, I was miserable before I started knitting, with a brief relapse of my stomach bug and our furnace breaking, but I found no relief in my knitting. Ugh.)

To cheer myself up, I swatched for a project for my mom. KnitNY had a great store pattern for a simple, chic shrug. It seemed like the perfect thing for mom, who's always chilly at work. So we picked out a really cool cotton yarn - in black, so New York - which also has some elastic content. The yarn is more like all seasons cotton than Fixation though. It's like the spin is so tight the yarn almost bounces. It's really a pleasure to knit with. What a switch from the bucket bust! Since the shrug pattern is one of those one-piece-folded-over-on-itself designs, I decided to make my swatch a mini-version to try out how it fits together. Looks pretty cool on Bun-Bun, don't you think?

Now I'm smiling again. Calm tummy, warm house, happy knitting.

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After a few failed attempts last year, I had to admit that I could not bucket (remember?), but now that Bonne Marie has come up with a one-piece design and Becky has restarted her bucket-along, I'm gonna give it another try. Bottoms up hats coming up! While in NYC, I picked out some Manos Cotton Stria (at KnitNY) for a summer white bottoms up bucket hat for myself.

And if I succeed, there'll be more buckets in the works. My (apparently psychic!) Secret Pal sent me cotton yarns perfect for bucket hats. Thanks, Pal! There's even a white skein that's very similar to my Manos Cotton, so I think I'll make the boys matching bucket hats. Too cute. If that doesn't get me to bucket, then nothing will.

I caved. I bought (*gasp*) a bucket hat.

I was standing in line at the department store with some Christmas purchases and trying to keep the boys amused by trying on hats. Well, I slipped on this bucket hat and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Gosh darnit, if that hat didn't look good. And better than any hat that I could knit. I couldn't put it back. (Forgive me, Bonne Marie and Becky!)

I guess that now that's out of my system, I should get back to the hubby hat.

I can't bucket. I'm loving watching all the fuzzy, furry and fabulous bucket hats being knitted all around our little blog world (like here and here and of course here), but I have to admit to being a bucket bozo. I so want to have a bucket hat, but I have a very low fiddliness threshhold and simply cannot bear to do all that picking up of stitches and knitting little pieces and parts. This is why I do not knit socks. Still, I can't stand not having a bucket hat in my wardrobe, so I picked up some yarn to make this pattern from the Fall 2003 issue of Interweave Knits (by local designer Rebecca Harris!).

Can I knit it now? Can I? Can I? I should focus on my holiday gift-knits, shouldn't I? Shouldn't I?