Hats

A little while ago Mr Earplugs collected Nipper from nursery and left his hat and gloves behind. Since it was still rather nippy, and he only had one set, I thought I'd better do something about it. Initially I was going to just buy a set but both our local Woolworths and Adams stores have gone to the wall and I couldn't be bothered with traipsing around looking for a hat! So I figured I'd knit one!

A quick trawl of the www and I found a pattern for a 'Pixie Hat'. As usual I didn't have the right yarn or needles and couldn't wait to get started either. So I figured I'd have a go with some pure wool sock yarn which I bought in a fit of enthusiasm whilst forgetting that pure wool wouldn't be that hardwearing and would likely felt when I mistakenly put it in the washing machine. Here it is:As I recall it's Fyberspates, 100% wool, sock yarn, in 'Blue Lagoon'. It feels quite thick for a sock yarn but since I've only knitted one pair of socks as yet what do I know?! But since it is a sock yarn I figured my existing set of dpns should do the trick. I wasn't sure what size to knit since I wasn't using the right yarn or needles and I wouldn't call Nipper a 'baby' but then again neither is he a 'small adult'. I went with 'small adult' in the end on the basis that it should fit him for a long, long time!

I had conquered my fear of dpns when knitting my first socks last year but was somewhat alarmed when I realised that this hat called for 7 of them!

That was quite some feat and to be honest I think I'd have found it easier to use a circular needle and just go onto dpns for the shaping. But I got the hang of it and here is the finished article:


Nipper looks a real cutie in it though I may have to make the 'stalk' disappear as he gets older and needs to look 'cool' (my friend's 5 year old insists on looking 'cool' - at 5 years old!!)

Following the success of this hat Miss Muffett decided she wanted one. We opted for the Saturday Afternoon Hat (which took longer than 1 afternoon for me to knit it!) but again I didn't have the right yarn or needles. So I decided to do a combination of both patterns and use my existing dpns and 100g of double knit acrylic which has been kicking around the place for donkeys years!

I cast on the number of stitches required for the Pixie Hat, did a few alternating knit and purl rows so the bottom wouldn't roll up, added in several rows of the Saturday Afternoon Hat detail, then reverted to the Pixie Hat pattern for the top shaping.

It seems to have worked out ok and Miss Muffett is very pleased with it.

Now I just have to whip up a pair of mittens to match Nipper's hat before the weather warms up too much (don't think that's likely to happen - lol!)

P.S. I can't remember where I found the Saturday Afternoon Hat but it was likely on Ravelry.

Hats