lamb's pride tiger and bear hats, oh my!



tiger and bear hats from Zoe Mellor's Double Knits in Lamb's Pride

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I haven't knit very much in the last few days, but I did get to the yarn store! I bought some yarn for two adorable winter hats for the boys - a bear hat and a tiger hat. I want to get these done before Halloween so that the boys can wear them as we greet people at the door.

The pattern is from Zoe Mellor's Double Knits book, which I just love. It's got pairs of patterns (modelled by twins) and they're just so cute! I'm trying to make as many as I can before the boys get too big for the designs (up to 3 years). I'm also planning on making the sweaters from the cover.

I did do some knitting, enough at least to finish my first short-row sock. Here it is!

OK, no lions, but the cute tiger and bear hats for the boys are underway. Here's the front of the tiger hat in all its bobbin glory and here's the finished front and back.

Since I'm not so excited about sewing right now after all the recent Elizabeth I finishing, I've begun the bear hat as well. So far it's only a brown rolled edge and not quite photo worthy.

... it has ceased to be... it is an ex-sweater.

Here's the back of Elizabeth I (since this is the third try with this darn thing, I should just start calling it Elizabeth III!). I'm leaving the other half as is for now so that I can use it to judge how much smaller the back is as I reknit it. Anyway, the ripping went fine, no knots in my stomach, which makes me think I made the right decision, and not all too many in the kinky yarn. But I can't quite work up the energy to start the whole straightening the yarn process. Again.

I've been blocking the little bear and tiger hats and as soon as they're dry I can add on the ears and then sew them up. Yeah! I've been languishing here for a while without any finished projects and am looking forward to being able to update my hot off the needles page. I've got lots of extra yarn and except for a few rows with the bobbins, the project is pretty easy, so I have decided to make another tiger hat for my nephew. And maybe some tiny Opal tiger socks for his new little brother (born in August). All part of my elaborate plan to avoid reknitting this sweater!

Not all too much to report from the blueroom here. I'm washing and straightening the yarn from Elizabeth I. Take a peek at the yarn drying on hangers over the tub. And I'm finishing the little tiger hat. I tried it on the boys for a quick size check. Here's a dark, but still cute picture.

Finally, a new finished project! The tiger hat is all done and looks pretty gosh-darn cute, if I do say so myself. The bear hat still needs ears and seams, but will definitely be done in time for Halloween.

Otherwise, I'm still washing the Elizabeth yarn and should start reknitting the back over the weekend. And I've cast on for another of the baby stripey socks. That's four works-in-progress, including the Native sweater (which is slowly approaching unfinished-object status) and four Christmas projects that I have yet to start. Aack, knitting overload!

Back from the Knit Out (report coming tomorrow). We Knitsmiths took over a couple of tables and knit through the chaos of it all. Dana has been working on a gorgeous scarf and Tanya's knitting the nth of about n+50 afghan squares! And I managed to finish the little bear hat. Whoopee!

Out kipping again. After having no luck with my sock while coming back from dropping the car off at the shop, I decided to try a different project for the ride out to the dealer to pick it up. I started making another tiger hat, this one for my nephew for Christmas. He's 6 and the pattern is only written for 2-3 years, so I had to guess at about how much larger to make it. Here's a picture of progress so far. I stopped right where the intarsia begins for the tiger stripes. Didn't want to attempt that in the train! I'm not sure if I have enough of the orange yarn, so I'm doing the rolled brim in the contrast color (that's actually how it is in the original pattern).

Elizabeth is also coming along. I've done the edging, short-row shaping and first dart. I'm feeling pretty good about how she's turning out. Lookie, lookie!

While working on the little tiger hat yesterday I thought about how indimidated I used to be by the idea of intarsia knitting. Well, to anyone out there who would like to try it but is afraid, "Look, if I can do it, you can!" In case some visual aids would help, here's how I'm doing it. Now, I'm no expert here, but that's my point. I've got no idea if what I'm doing is right, but it seems to work. And since I'm semi-successfully fudging my way through it, so can you.

And here's the piece finished.

Finished the tiger hat for my nephew! All drunk from my recent knitting successes, I threw caution to the wind and just did the intarsia knitting with no bobbins and let the ends hang all over the place. Wild! The Opal tiger socks are next. And to inspire me to keep finishing off the odds and ends, today we present an internet tiger sock tour.

Of course, we must begin with Wendy. She made hers at the beginning of the year. Next, we have Stephanie of stephknits. It looks like she finished hers earlier this fall. Inga from Der kleine Sockhaus and Erin, aka tree, just finished theirs. Valerie of Valerie's blog has both socks on the needles. And Melissa from loose ends has a pair still just as virtual as mine!

And look, I didn't even mention this once!

We had a lovely white Christmas here in Boston and the boys had their first non-freaked out experience in the snow. They wore their little animal hats that I made for them at Halloween (since their mutssjaals weren't finished yet then). Wanna see?  S the Bear & B the Tiger

As you can tell, I'm enjoying the freedom I still have of dressing my boys in whatever I like for the day. They wear their handknits pretty much as often as I'm willing to wash them! So here's hoping that I'll have at least one more year before they decide they don't want to wear any of the silly things that mom wants to make and I am relegated to knitting boring brown sweaters for them. I do really like the stylish boy sweaters in books like Rowan Junior a lot, but they're just not as fun for mommy to look at as, say, a Dale sheep sweater. Know what I mean?

This was wee S, almost five years ago in the little bear hat I made him from Zoe Mellor's Double Knits book, one of the first knitting books I ever got - in fact, hubby bought this for me the first Christmas after the boys were born. Awwww. Well, guess who's wearing the bear hat now?

Wee one! Who, by the way, is nowhere near as wee as S and B were - she's 8 months old and he was a year and a half when he wore this hat. Yes, our so-called wee one has simply outgrown all the little hats I've made for her, so until I get some new ones on the needles, if I want her ears to be covered, it's gotta be boys' hand-me-downs. I love this one on her though. Those little pink ears are so adorable! And on her grumpy days maybe she can wear B's tiger hat - hee hee.

And speaking of fun baby hats, have you heard that Susan B. Anderson of Itty-Bitty Hats and Itty-Bitty Nursery is coming to Black Sheep Knitting in Needham for a trunk show and book signing?! (She's doing a whole east coast book tour this week - you can check out this post on her blog to see if she's coming to your town and LYS.) Come on Boston-area knitmoms, you know that the cutest hats you've ever made for your kids are from Susan's book, so come on out Monday night to see her! See ya there!

Update: Susan Anderson's trunk show and book signing at Black Sheep Knitting is going to be on Monday from 1pm to 3pm, and NOT later in the evening as previously appeared on her blog.