Calling it Quits for Christmas Knitting

I made most of my goals this year, so it time to call it quits for Christmas knitting. I finished Mom's pair of socks, and I'm only short one and a bit of dad's convertible fingerless mittens, but have been given an official pardon from the 'rents. When I tried to excuse my tardiness by accusing them of not being very ramped up for Christmas, Dad got a little defensive. So I asked "Do you have a tree?". "Sure" he says. Ceramic trees don't count, Dad! In fact, I let him know that you are officially "old" when you only have a ceramic tree up. Is it any wonder I don't get invited home very often!

But I did get the last of the presents completed for Tim's family. Here is the hat I made for his brother. It's Kim's Hat from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, knitted on size 7 circulars and dpns out of the recommended Manos de Uruguay.

I ran a bit short, so I swung by Unraveled to pick up a coordinating color. They helped find the perfect color - sort of looks like soil layers - but I really don't like how they have all the yarn organized by color. I came in looking for Manos and needed professional help just to figure out what they had in the store.

I tightened up the gauge to make the hat fit the recipient (the final dimensions seemed big), but didn't really think about adjusting the inches of height. I knitted the men's size, but got the women's dimension for the circumference. Perhaps I should have knitted the women's height as well. I have the same head dimension as my brother-in-law and it is comfortably snug. The men's size at gauge would have floated on his head.

On my daughter it looks very much like a top at, don't you think?

It's not so bad in person, a little funky edge to a ski hat design. And by getting extra yarn, I have just the amount for another hat for my perpetually cold husband. Win-win for everyone - except my Dad!

Tiny Hat Parade

I've had the joy of working with tiny hats over the last few months. A kind soul donated a large lot of baby weight yarn to the church's knitting ministry. A perfect fit as the group decided to make hats for the local hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.

I took it as an opportunity to go through the bunches of baby hat patterns that I had amassed to do some pattern test knitting. And the winner is....



The Handle Hat by Larissa at Stitch Marker.




This pattern calls for sock yarn, so I thought that the sport weight yarn would work well, and it did. I made the pattern three times, changing only the needle size each time and adding an eyelet row on the smallest.



I wish I had written down the sizes (wasn't that why I started blogging?!), but I think that I knitted with #3, #4, and #5 dpns. The shape of the hat and the finishing of the little handle top make this a fun knit. Perhaps a bit more length might make it more wearable for a little longer, but I really like this hat for sport weight yarn. I liked the feel and size of the the #4 hat best.

I also tried the simple hat calculator and knit these two:



The first version is on the right with an eyelet row. The second is the correct depth called for in the pattern, but you would need to roll it many times to prevent it from looking like a conehead garment. I didn't like the shaping on the top - the first one I followed the pattern as written and the second I modified the top using the pattern's suggestions for smaller sizes. I think they are both too pointy and would want to fiddle with the final rows more to feel comfy with this pattern.

Procrastination does pay off! I waited to "deliver" (couldn't help the pun!) the hats to the NICU when my friend had arrived to deliver her little girl and was able to drop off hats and see a brand new baby. Very fun. And did I bring her a hat? No!



She got these cut little booties from Last Minute Knitted gifts. It is the Angora Baby Booties pattern. I started them on her birth date and had them ready the next morning. I used double strands of Kid Silk Haze and #4 dpns. This pattern is by far the best toe-up sock method I've seen. Advice that is not worth much as I haven't done any adult toe-ups yet, but this pattern rocks.

The stash reduction is in full progress as I finish more projects and start using some of my own yarn. More updates soon!

Ribbon Triangles

I wanted to make something fun for Ms. Mary, my daughter's ballet teacher, and chose the "Ribbon Triangles" pattern and Tartellete ribbon yarn, both from Knit One Crochet Two and both from Holly Spring Homespun. A pair of size 17 needles and a weekend later, I was done!

The intriguing part of this pattern is that the scarf self-fringes. You knit a giant triangle and then drop stitches - on purpose! - along one edge. I'm sure this is old hat (or scarf!) to you Clap-ers, but I was so amazed, I took pictures!

Here's the end of the big triangle, and the four victim stitches:

Here are the stitches on the loose (I left the needles close by in case I got cold feet!):

And the fringe begins! The unravelling was really fun.

And here is the final product:

I'd make this scarf again with no worries. It knits up really quickly and makes a nice size triangular scarf for only two skeins of yarn. The pattern can also be extended to a shawl by using four skeins, but I would think that with the fringes, it might be a bit much, especially as Ms. Mary is a tiny person.

Hope she likes the scarf version!