A Christmas Treat

I'm crawling out from under a large pile of Christmas knitting to share a little pattern I whipped up recently. I made this hat for my nephew's birthday. He loves hats, and last Christmas he wore a cheap felt Santa hat indoors and out, and even to bed, until sometime in March. In need of a more sturdy replacement (the old one was toast), I made him this one, with a bit of extra padding to keep his ears warm outside, and in a washable wool-acrylic blend to please his mom. I've since had a request for an infant version, and I was happy to oblige. Both sizes are included here.

I hope to have a prettier pdf version available on Ravelry, eventually, and I may size it up for adults too. Although, you'll note that for a four-year-old my nephew has quite a large noggin, so the child size may fit adults with heads on the smaller end of the scale.

Enjoy!

Santa Hat

Finished hat, infant size.

Size: Infant: Finished circumference of unstretched ribbed band is approximately 12”.

Child: child. Finished circumference of unstretched ribbed band is approximately 16”.

Instructions are given for infant size, with necessary changes for child size given in parentheses.

Materials:

Yarn: Infant size: approximately 50 g each of red and white worsted weight yarn

Child size: 100 g each of red and white worsted weight yarn

(Samples shown were knit from Patons Décor)

Set of 5, 4 mm double pointed needles (infant size), or 4 mm 16” circular needle (child size), or needle size required to get gauge

Spare 3.5 mm or 4 mm circular needle, 16” or longer

Stitch marker.

Set of pom-pom maker rings

Gauge: 21 st and 14 rows = 4” (Row gauge is not essential.)

Finished hat, child size.

Directions:

Using a provisional crochet cast-on, CO 68 (92) st with white yarn on 4mm dpns or circular needle. Place a stitch marker to mark start of row, and begin working in the round.

Round 1: K 1 row.

Round 2: K2 P2 around.

Repeat Row 2 ribbing until work is 1.75” (2”) long.

Next round: Increase 7 (8) stitches evenly around. 75 (100) st. total.

Change to red.

Work even in stockinette st for 4” (4.5”). Work from beginning should measure 6” (6.5”).

Begin decreasing as follows:

For infant size:

[K23, K2tog] 3 times. 72 st.

Knit 6 rounds even.

[K7, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 64 st.

Knit 6 rounds even.

[K6, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 56 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K5, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 48 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K4, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 40 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K3, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 32 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K2, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 24 st.

Knit 5 rounds even.

[K1, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 16 st.

Knit 5 rounds even.

[K2tog] 8 times. 8 st.

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches, draw together, and fasten off.

For child size:

[K18, K2tog] repeat 4 times. 95 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K8, K2tog, K9] repeat 4 times. 90 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K16, K2tog] repeat 4 times. 85 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K8, K2tog, K7] repeat 4 times. 80 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K6, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 70 st.

Knit 9 rows even.

[K5, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 60 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K4, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 50 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K3, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 40 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K2, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 30 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K1, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 20 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K2tog] 9 times. 10 st.

Knit 2 rounds even.

[K2tog] 5 times. 5 st.

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches, draw together, and fasten off.

To complete rolled band:

“Unzip” the provisional cast-on and place live stitches on circular needle or dpns. Turn hat inside out – you will now work with the inside of the hat facing. Join white, and place stitch marker to mark beginning of round.

Purl one round.

Knit one round.

Next round: Knit, increasing 7 (8) stitches evenly around. 75 (100) st.

Continue in stockinette st (K every row) for 14 (20) rounds.

Purl one round to create fold line.

Knit one round.

Next round: knit, decreasing 7 (8) stitches evenly around. 68 (92) st.

Continue in stockinette st (K every row) for 13 (17) rounds.

To join folded band:

Turn hat right-side out. Using spare circular needle, and with outside of hat facing, pick up loops from wrong side of first knit row, immediately below the ribbed band. 68 (92) picked up sts. Fold stockinette band in half, with needle containing live stitches positioned above the needle(s) containing picked-up stitches. Hold both of these needles together in your left hand. Using the end of one circular needle, or a spare dpn, work around as follows: [Insert working needle into one stitch from upper needle and one stitch from lower needle. Knit the two together.] Repeat. Cast off one stitch from right-hand needle. Continue in this manner, knitting the two layers together and casting off loosely at the same time, around.

Block if necessary, weave in ends, and fold up band of hat.

Detail of finished band, shown rolled down. Final cast-off edge is directly below the ribbing.

Gift Knitting

I have discovered yet another reason that I love our house: we're on the up-wind side of the street. I have spent a good deal of time these last few days digging out from successive dumpings of snow, but the folks across the street definitely have it worse. The wet snow has made for heavy shoveling, but it does make the neighbourhood look pretty.

The view across the street.

I have a number of FO shots to share with you, so I thought that today I would give you a round-up of the Christmas gifts. I tried to keep it under control this year, inspired by memories of casting off a scarf last year at 2AM on Christmas morning! The red sweater that I designed and knit last spring was a gift for my aunt, an accomplished knitter herself, and she was delighted with it. And my mom really likes her Swallowtail shawl.

This touque, in Smart Superwash, was a requested replacement for a similar gift last year which, sadly, was lost. I knit a different pattern this year. making it up as I went along, out of the same yarn to match the scarf given last year.

Gift toque, in Smart Superwash, 90 st with cabled ribbing, modeled by yours truly.

Then there was the rescue knitting for another aunt. She had knit this lace sweater up to the armhole decreases, but given the challenges of decreasing in pattern, combined with a really poorly written pattern, she passed it off to me to finish. The yarn, Mandarin Petit, is a fingering weight multi-ply cotton. It's quite nice and soft, and I would definitely use it again. The pattern though, I hope to never see again.

The rescue knitting sweater, pre-blocking.

And then, there were the jackets for the wee ones of the family. I chose to try out the Accordion pattern from Knitty.com in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Accordion jacket, size 2 Toddler, in Knit Pick Swish Superwash.

Gauge was interesting with this project. I thought that the recommended yarns were worsted weight, but I had to go up several needle sizes to get gauge with the Swish. I think my jackets have a lot more drape than the pattern version as a result, but they are cute and warm nonetheless. I added an inch of two to the measurements to account for the notorious vertical shrinkage with this yarn, and washed the pieces before seaming. The only problem this caused was difficulty finding zippers in odd lengths, since it was difficult to predict the finished length of the garment until after it was washed.

It was on this last jacket that I fell down in the gift knitting department. I didn't finish it in time, and I still haven't gone shopping for a zipper - maybe later today. It will hopefully be finished in time to be a New Year's gift. The recipient won't know the difference - he's three!

Accordion Jacket, Size 4 Toddler, in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Must go finish off the shovelling. Happy New Year to all!

Multi-tasking

After finishing a bunch of long-languishing projects this spring and beating myself down to only two works-in-progress, it appears that I must have let my guard down. A bunch of new projects seem to have lept into my knitting basket when I wasn't looking. 8 projects of the WIP list?! How did that happen? And I think there may be one or two small unreported ones besides! Obviously this is getting out of control. The latest offender:
I'm still on a quest to clear out odds and end from the stash. I had a huge bag of mismatched acrylic bits, which seem to have morphed into a pretty psychadelic baby blanket. I pulled these out one night, and thought of knitting more mitres, but instead I found an old pattern for a girl's alphabet sweater, with intarsia blocks. Pulling colours at random, I knit this in verticals strips that have been mattress-stitched together. I think it still needs about two more columns, taking me up to R, but unfortunately the pattern that I've been using only goes to L. So I need to sit down and try to graph a few more letters in the same style in order to continue. I also ran out of interesting images from the sweater pattern early on, so I've been pulling them from different sources. Nursery Knits by Debbie Bliss is great for that, and my favourite, the lady bug, is from Animal Knits by Zoe Mellor. I think I will knit a mitred border in moss stitch, similar to the last baby blanket I showed you (the animal one). The finished blanket is destined for the Warm Woolies donation box, and will just about fill it up. The latest addition to the box:


Again, this was a response to my recent obsession with getting rid of yarn ends. Cute, no?

My recently aquired ADD has also manifested itself in starting a new cardigan design. It's a pretty plain little black cardigan with lace edging in Patons Fresco, which I have ooodles of in the stash. I'll try to get some photos next time I pull it out. Having a cat in the house these days means I can't leave too much yarn lying around in open view, so most my WIPs have been carefully stored for the time being. She did manage to shred a little ball of acrylic that I left lying around one night, so I'm not taking any chances!

And of course, the knitting continues in fits and starts on mansock #2 and on the Soleil tank top.


Somebody stop me before I start something else!

Home again

Well, I arrived safely back in Ottawa around 2:30 this morning, after only a three-hour flight delay in Winnipeg. By my standards, that's actually pretty good!

I didn't get too much knitting done in my travels. I knew that I had a very busy weekend conference ahead of me, but I didn't even knit much on the plane. I was so tired I slept most of the way back. I did get one man sock finished, and Nick was kind enough to model it:


His feet are a little bigger than Dad's, so it's a tad over-stretched in the ankle here. I like the striping in this yarn, but it's not a particularly regular stripe interval. I don't think it will be possible to get identical socks out of it - I don't remember the last time I managed to get identical twin socks out of a self-striping yarn anyway! It is turning out to be a little splitty to knit with. I added a strand of black reinforcing thread in the heel, but I forgot about it for the toe. It probably looks better without it in the end. On to sock number two.

I thought I'd photograph a few more of the knits I've done for Warm Woolies over the past few weeks.

Good Friend Cable Vest

Assorted hats. The top one is felted.

The box is getting fairly full, but I think I can still cram in another couple of hats and socks. Did you see that flash of fur in the hat photo above? We're kitty sitting this little cutie for a couple of weeks while our friends are on vacation.


I grew up always having a cat and a dog around the house, but Nick has never had a cat, so it's a fun new experience for him. So far so good!

A fresh crop of little FO's

I've been knitting a lot of little things since the new year came in. Instant gratification. Here's another little catch-up post.

Lace-Edged Hat in Smart Superwash 100% wool (Norway), 4.5 mm circ and dpns.

This is sort of a late Christmas gift for my SIL. I finished her Column of Leaves scarf (sadly, no photo) kind of at the last minute, and since I had a lot of yarn left over, I decided to make a matching hat. I'll be heading home again for a quick visit in February, so I get to give it to her in person. I still had a whole ball of the wool left over when this was done, so I went stash diving and came up with some leftovers of purple tweed in the same DK weight. This little baby cardigan was started and finished so quickly that it never actually made it onto the WIP list.

V-neck Cardigan from the booklet Sirdar Snuggly Book of Baby and Toddler Knits, size 3-6 months, in Smart Superwash (blue) and Tivoli Luxury DK Tweed (purple), on size 3.25 and 4 mm straights.

The original pattern was a solid with a little Fair Isle pattern at the bottom edge. I just used it as a guide for size and knit it in 4-row stripes. I finishd with less that a meter of blue left (hooray for stash usage!). This is for nobody in particular; I tend to keep a stash of baby shower presents around. Sooner or later it will find a recipient. I still need to find some cute buttons for it. And I also finished those crazy stripey socks:

Broad rib socks (improvised patttern, 72 sts) in Lang Super Soxx, on size 2.25 mm dpns.

I'm really glad I didn't try to match the stripes on these, because halfway down the leg of the second sock, I foud a knot in the yarn, and part of the pattern repeat was missing (can you spot it?). The second sock (on the left in the photo) turned out much bluer than the first - the beige pooled on the heel. Knots aside, I really like this yarn, and will probably pick up another skein or two for gift knitting. The fit seems good so far, but I'll see how much they stretch with wear. I seem to have trouble knitting socks that stay up on me, especially in the big snowboots that I've been clunking around in lately. These may well be my new favorite socks.

I'm off to Wool Tyme tomorrow - the big but very hard to get to on the bus yarn store in an industrial park - to stock up on the Galway Heather for dh's sweater. They stock a full range of wonderful stuff that I can't get at my more easily accessible LYS. I'm going to try to resist the pull of the Colinette and Fleece Artist - for the sake of my bank account, please wish me luck!