making funky hats for baby

 
 
 

Child's Cotton Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts in Berroco Celtic,
Pixie Hat from Knitting for Two in Colinette Cadenza
Cherry-o Hat from Itty-Bitty Hats in Debbie Bliss cotton dk
Marshmallow Bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats in leftover Sirdar Snuggly
Cotton Stria Stripes hat from Itty Bitty Hats in Manos cotton stria leftovers
Upside-Down Daisy Hat from Itty Bitty Hats in Berroco Touche
Rosebud Wreath Hat from Itty Bitty Hats in Berroco Touche with Rowan handknit dk flowers
and, to come: "Lola" hat designed for wee one by big brother B

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Remember all those hats I made for wee one from Itty-Bitty Hats? Now that it's chilly again, I've been putting them on her. And here's how she wears them.

Not at all. What she does is immediately take them off and cuddle with them. I think all those nights snuggling with her blankie has made her very fond of the feel of knits. (Oooooh, something I understand very well!) But she might just be a little too fond of them if it means she won't ever wear a hat! Oh, she'll wear a store-bought jersey hat, but all these knit hats have simply become head-shaped loveys. She'll play normally with the fabric turtle buddy I made her, but she only wants to snuggle with her knitted dolly. I can't wait to see what she does with the mittens!

Wee one helped me finish her wee hallowig this morning, so it was ready for modeling right after lunch.

By George, I think she likes it!

My wee wig mods:

Cast on 60 stitches, work rib as given in pattern for 4 inches. Cast on 20 stitches for bangs as instructed and work 2 inches before beginning decreases. Decreases were worked as written with markers placed at (counting from center of bangs) 13 sts, 14 sts, 26 sts, and 14 sts. This made a small hat that fits her 6 mo. head just fine, although the length in the back, combined with baby's general no-neck-edness, does tend to push the hat up off her head a bit when she looks up. But I don't think this design produces a perfectly snug hat anyway. So when adjusting the size for your baby/child, remember to keep stitch count as a multiple of 4, place your front markers two stitches before and two stitches after the added bang stitches (and the back markers in the same positions over the back half of wig), and add length based on baby's ability to hold up her neck!

And have fun!

Well, not actually funny and not actually one thing, more like a vast conspiracy of things preventing me from blogging until right now. First, I had a school meeting, then a class field trip, then I had to feed the baby lunch, then it was time to pick up the kids after school, and then there was an impromptu playdate. Now, finally, about ten hours after I left the house, I can tell you that I finished the wee wig hat.

Unfortunately, I've made the bangs too short. We'll have to wait one more day for our finished modeled shot. Hey, it may not be real hair, but I'm sure wee one still wants her hair looking its best for its photo shoot!

Until then, I can show you some pics of her in her upside-down daisy hat (from Itty-Bitty Hats) which she's wearing now that it's chilly again.

Looooove that hat!!

It turns out I am not skilled enough to do the single crochet that the hello yarns anime hat pattern calls for for the eyes. But I do know how to cut out pieces of felt and sew them onto a hat. So there you have it, felt eyes. I'd be ashamed of myself if it hadn't come out so adorably cute!

Now for the gushing. I loved this pattern! I loved that it was top-down (cool way to do a hat). I loved the ears (they're so cleverly made and are the perfect addition). I love the little face (so funny and quirky - just like the big Totoro). And then there's this...

These ears totally make this hat! I can't deal with how cute it is and I've still got the face to add. I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle the cuteness when that's done!

Still no finishing here.

Well, I did kinda finish this children's cotton hat (see, I did the i-cord bow and everything!), but then I realized that it was going to be too small for the newborn I knit it for. My row gauge just wasn't what it was supposed to be! The hat barely fits baby L and this newborn was bigger than she was. And I'd like for her to be able to wear it for at least a month ('cause you know spring's never really going to come to Boston - not at least until summer does).

So I ripped it back to the beginning of the decreases and am reknitting the top. The cotton's got some stretch, so width isn't the problem. It's simply too short. A few more inches and then maybe, just maybe, I'll have finished something!

(Hubby gives me a break during this school vacation week by taking the boys off my hands for a day and still I don't get to post until 3pm! And if you've sent me an email in the last week, uh, yeah, I'm getting to them. Slowly. One email at a time.)

Although baby L is letting me get a little knitting done these days (a very little!), I can't seem to finish anything. All I manage to do is start quickie projects. After starting (and not finishing) the anime hat, I decided to start a hat for a classmate of the boys' whose mom just had another baby.

I figured the Last-Minute Knitted Gifts children's cotton hat would be simple enough for me to get done quickly. Wee one and I went out to Black Sheep Knitting and while she slept...

picture removed at request of store owner

I spied some pretty pretty Summer Tweed that would be perfect for the hat.

Wonder if I'll ever finish it.

Are you getting ready for sockapalooza?? I am! I'm working on the database (cleaning up the entries - there are always a few folks who didn't quite read the instructions correctly and have info in the wrong place) and hubby is working on the matching program. But knitting-wise, I thought, why don't I try out a little something socky I've never done before?

Would you believe it, I've never done a figure eight cast on or toe-up socks?! I like top-down socks a lot and so never bothered to try doing things the other way. But after seeing Cookie A on Knitty Gritty last week and watching her explain the technique, I thought 'that looks kinda cool.'

I didn't want to start any socks just yet, but I remembered that this cool kid's anime hat pattern from Hello Yarn is worked the same way from the top down, beginning with a figure eight cast on.

So wee one will be getting yet another funky hat. And I'll get some practice working a cast on for toe-up socks. Fun!

I do believe I like the hugs and kisses sweater (officially "Tea for Two" from Louisa Harding's Miss Bea's Rainy Day) even more in red.

And even wee one looks cuter in her red Cadenza pixie hat!

Wee one gets her blankie.

Wee one wears her LMKG hat.

Wee one wears cutie patootie tiny little booties from fellow Knitsmith, Dana.

can you find the daisy hat in the middle of all those legos?

I spent the entire afternoon with the boys working on our "structions". They picked out their biggest lego sets to work on and I had my itty bitty hats book.

how to make a car suspension

how to make a wheel assembly for a helicopter

how to make petals for a daisy hat

While the boys built a car and a giant helicopter, I mananged to make all the petals and sew them to the top of the upside-down daisy hat. The boys were actually watching my progress, asking how I was putting the petals on. They were really interested! And they thought it was so cool that I was following 'structions just like they were.

And here's bear/dog with the finished hat!

It came out super cute (despite the fact that my gauge must be a little different from the desired gauge in the book and I could only fit five petals on the top instead of six), but I think it still looks just like a daisy! This may be my favorite of all the hats I've made so far. Of course, I can't really see all the hats I've knit, since baby's stuff is all piled up in a heap in our bedroom. Next week we'll finally be setting up baby's room. And then I promise a pic of all the hats and all the booties all together!

I had one last ultrasound yesterday. The technician said the baby was doing great, everything was right on track, and went on and on about how good things looked. Then just as I'm getting ready to go, she says, "big head." Nooooo, don't say that. Those are so not the words a woman wants to hear a couple weeks away from delivery.

I'm trying to ignore what that comment means for delivery and have returned to the hat factory to make more hats for that big head. (Some of you asked about the sizes I've been making. I made two hats in a newborn size on an 11" circular needle, but all the rest have been in a 0-6 month size and knit on a 16" circular. They should be large enough for her big head.) To prepare for hat class tonight, I knit the white hat for the rosebud wreath up to the decreases.

Eeeek! Looking at all these knitted hats and finishing the last few I've still got on the needles is not helping me keep my mind off that big head.

I cannot stop making these Itty-Bitty Hats for wee one! Just a couple of pages away from the rosebud hat is this adorable "upside down daisy" hat.

I'm teaching my beginner's hat class again, and as I needed something simple to cast on, I started the daisy hat. No idea why I had a ball of pink Berroco Touche in my stash, but it was perfect for the hat. I really liked the feel of the cotton/rayon yarn while knitting with it and love the look of the finished fabric. I cast on in class and suddenly, the whole thing was done. It still needs its flower petals of course, but the hat part is done.

I think the actual hat part of the rosebud hat follows the exact same pattern as this hat, so it'll be a breeze to make that with my students next week. Then I can add all the flowers to both of them.

Is it even going to be possible for her to wear this many hats? I'm stuck in "knitting for twins" mode, aren't I?

I couldn't help starting another Itty-Bitty Hat! This time it was the cotton stria hat.

I dug up all the tiny little scraps that I had leftover from Johanna's circle of friends blanket and jumped right in. Each of my scraps was good for only about two rounds in the hat, so I had A LOT of ends to weave in at the end, but it felt so cool to actually make something useful out of those tiny bits.

Dani had some aqua and orange and hot pink leftovers for me to throw in to the mix and the result is so adorably stripey, I can barely stand it!

And speaking of Dani, she was so inspired by all those cotton stria colors that she created a new sock yarn colorway for Sunshine Yarns based on them.

I think she's putting some of it up for sale in her store tomorrow! I grabbed a skein right off the production line, so to speak, for booties to match the hat. How perfect!

I found this sweet book at 7th Avenue Books in Brooklyn and couldn't resist buying it for wee one.

I am learning to smell the flowers from my friends the Knitsmiths, who pitched in to help me make 24 little flowers for this hat for wee one. Yes, it's another hat out of Itty-Bitty Hats. I loved the hat as soon as I saw it, but couldn't imagine myself making it unless I was put on bedrest or something. (By the way, this week I passed the date at which I had to go on bedrest while pregnant with the twins. And I'm definitely planning on doing the remainder of this pregnancy vertical!) The Knitsmiths loved the hat too and said they could each make a rosebud or two (or in Lisa's case, twelve!). I just happened to have Rowan handknit dk in six lovely colors in my stash, so I brought 'em in to Knitsmiths and we made a garden.

The rosebuds are really easy to make, just simple tiny garter stitch strips that get rolled up and attached to the hat. You wouldn't think they could ever look very flowery, but put a little green garter stitch triangle leaf (oh yeah, they made 13 of those for me too!) behind them and voila!

Now I just have to make the hat and sew them all on. That'll be easy. Thanks to all my friends!

This was the subject line in some junk mail I got this morning. I like to read them out loud (they always sound better out loud) and then say "Yes!" "Absolutely!" "Just what I wanted!" right before I delete them.

But this marshmallow bonnet with the pink squiggles is the real deal. "Yes, absolutely, just what I wanted!" Why didn't I put the squiggles on in the first place??

The pink is left over from the bee's knees sweater (I'm making use of all those color sequence repeats I had to wind off to get the pieces to match). I'm so excited about how good it looks with the peachy/pink ribbon from the großmutter sweater. I really think this hat will work well with both sweaters. Which means that I can move on to the next page in the book and make a different hat.

"Yes!" "Absolutely!" "Just what I wanted!"

Starting the new year off with another fun baby hat. (I am just in love with this Itty Bitty Hats book!)

This is a variation of the Marshmallow Bonnet from said Itty-Bitty Hats book. (It's actually on the page right before the Cherry-O hat that I made last week, so you can tell I've barely begun to knit my way through this book!) The original pattern is adorable, in moss stitch with little curly squiggles in pink at the top corners of the bonnet, but I wanted to make this one match wee one's großmutter sweater and bee's knees sweater, so I changed it to stockinette stitch, put a stockinette hem on the front (like the edges of the großmutter sweater) and kept the reverse stockinette roll in back (to match the edgings on the bee's knees sweater). I used leftover Sirdar Snuggly from the großmutter sweater and the leftover ribbon to close it, so the colors are a perfect match.

I really like the look of bonnets (check out this pattern I got at Purl and plan to make for wee one for the summer!) and am very pleased with how this came out. Still, I'm thinking two little curly squiggles in leftover pink from the bee's knees sweater would make it just perfect! And then all I'll need are some white stockinette booties and baby could have a whole matching outfit to wear home from the hospital.

I spent the night before Christmas Eve braiding ties (wow, that took a long time!) so Santa could put the nosewarmers under the tree for Christmas morning.

click here for the video! (Windows Media file should work on Internet Explorer
or try this link for Real Media version or this link for Quick Time version)

And I even got a little something knitty for Christmas! Hubby (with the help of knitbuddy, Dani) got me the Itty-Bitty Hats book (something I've picked up and considered buying for myself a dozen times) along with yarn to make the little striped cherry-o hat. So I did.

I started it while playing board games with the boys (which I can do virtually hands free, 'cause when we're playing Mousetrap the boys always want to do all the building, plus they like to move the all pieces themselves, and S built a lego die roller with his Christmas legos that spits the die out of it's mouth to roll it!). And then I relaxed in the evening (with a very excited wee one in my belly) by finishing off hat and cherries.

Hope your holiday was merry!

Whew, long time, no see, and very little knitting! And I mean very little.

Like wee little mittens to match wee one's funky pixie hat. Can you imagine the teeny tiny hands that are going to fit in there? I followed the thumbless baby "bold banded mittens" pattern in Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knits for Tots, since they're, well, adorable.

Like the hat, the mitten pattern was very clear and it looks awesome in that fabulous Cadenza yarn from Colinette. And I've still got yarn left from that one hank! I feel a strange desire to add little pompoms to the mitten cuffs or maybe to the top of the hat. You can't really have too many funky pompoms can you?

Up next, me catching up on life after a crazy, hectic holiday weekend, and a Bee's Knees sock yarn sweater for wee one!

After seeing Tara's pixie hat on the baby bumpers blog, I wanted to make one for wee one on the way. I grabbed Erika Knight's Knitting for Two book at the store and found the most awesome yarn for the hat, Colinette's new "easy care" (read washable!), hand-dyed wool, Cadenza. This yarn is so cool! It's got really awesome colors.

I used a little Debbie Bliss Merino DK I had in red for the edging and the i-cords and Dani helped out by making a couple of her trademarked "kick-ass pompoms" for me ('cause I suck at making pompoms).

I had lots of extra yarn left over (seriously, a Colinette yarn with decent yardage, a good price and that's easy care - wow!), so I've got little thumbless baby mitts in the works!

I've scoured my stash and managed to come up with yarn to recreate the hat that B designed for wee one on the way! I couldn't get over how much the hat looked like a hat that Lola from Charlie and Lola would wear. And Lola looks so cute all the time, I couldn't help but go searching for the yarn to make it. And, heh, heh, because my stash is obscenely large, I found everything I needed.

Here's the rundown: red - Frog Tree Merino; purple: Anny Blatt Merinos; gray - NatureSpun Sport; brown: uuuh, maybe Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL?; orange - Classic Elite Princess; yellow - Cascade 220 Superwash; black - Classic Elite Bazic; green: Nashua Julia; blue: Manos del Uruguay. The gauges are a bit different but the colors are so perfect that I've gotta make it work. This is going to be fun!

With my funky hat in time out for coming out too small, I've moved on to making funky baby hats.

I love this "cotton children's hat" pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (note: see my post about the small error in this pattern) and had some Berroco Celtic in a pretty pink and brown colorway leftover from knitting up the store's sample swatch. So I put the two together and now wee one will have the sweetest little hat ever (for her sure to be bald head!).

More funky baby hats are in the works, including that Lola hat designed by B.

as always, check the project archive for pattern info

The vintage Großmutter sweater is all done! I simply adore it - it's just so sweet. I had the ribbon in my stash for some knitting project I wanted to make for myself a couple of years ago. It's much better put to use here in wee one's coming-home-from-hospital sweater.

click for the close-up view

When I was taking the picture, S first wanted to clarify that he wasn't going to try this knit on. "No, no, honey, I won't make you try this one on." Then he asked if the baby was going to have pants. I told him not to worry, we'd go buy some pants, and B jumped in to remind us that "girls like pants that are big and open on the bottom - like a skirt." Then B went to make a hat for the baby.

Doesn't it look just like a hat that Lola (from Charlie and Lola) would wear?! I love it! I think I'm going to have to knit one like this for wee one. From her big brother B.

Since I can't quite get up early enough in the morning to shower before I have to drop the boys off at school, I've started wearing all my fun knit hats to cover my bed head. I'm trying to avoide the ucky not-showered mom image by being cool funky hat mom. It's working so far, but after two months, the other mothers have seen almost all of my funky hats! I need more!

To keep me in funky hats all winter long, I picked up a couple of kits at Rhinebeck. First, the Lily Chapeau from Morehouse Merino. I loved the look of this hat and found a nice brown/pinky purple combination that I couldn't resist.

Unfortunately it's coming out small. Grrrrr. I thought it was just me until I really did the math and discovered that following the pattern, the brim of the hat is only 17" around and the body like 20". Doesn't the picture make it look like it should be a poofy hat? Well, I want it poofy. I need funky here! So I'll be ripping out the above and starting again with an extra 21 stitches (yes, the pattern is a 21-stitch repeat, aaaaahhhh!).

In the meantime, I can get started on Jamie Harmon's angora mystery hat. This one won't be too small! With two layers of big, fluffy angora, it'll be plenty big and plenty funky.

I picked out white and pink and bought a little extra to make a cute funky baby hat for wee one too. She won't have bed head but bald head to worry about. Like (funky) mother, like (funky) daughter.