Knitting Baby Hats

I had so much fun knitting the hats pictured below.
First is the watermelon hat:

The Watermelon Hat

I found this free pattern on Spud & Chloe but didn't want it to be as pointy or as pink as the one pictured on their site. I used size 8 Addi Turbo 16" circular needles, size 8 double pointed needles for all three hats and the following yarns for the Watermelon Hat: Wool-Ease 140 Rose Heather, 180 Forest Green Heather, and 402 Wheat.  For the seeds, I used bits of another Wool-Ease, some variation of dark brown.

 The Apple Hat

The apple hat pattern was also a free pattern, this one by Sara Galley, which I found at Knitting Pattern Central. I wanted a deeper red, and wanted one without wool, so I used Vanna's Choice 180 Cranberry for the apple, Simply Soft's Dark Sage for the leaf, the dark brown for the worm and stem. Rather than knitting a rolled brim, however, I did 5 rows of K2P2 ribbing. The worm is not part of this pattern, but is simply about 3" of I-cord with eyes sewn in.

My new wonderful stainless Hiya Hiya dpns which are SO much better than the nasty plastic dpns I had been using. They come 5 in a pack, so the fifth one must have rolled under the package just before I took the picture.

This hat is a variation on a theme. Found as the adult hat in the Stitch'n'Bitch book don't blame me; I didn't name it by Debbie Stoller, I cast on fewer stitches and did several rows of seed stitch, then made the crown taller than it would have been for a baby hat so that it could be turned up. Okay, to be honest, the taller crown was a mind-wandering accident. But it turned out to be perfect for folding the brim up. Stitches are picked up at the bottom of the turned up brim, then earflaps with I-cord are knitted on. Wool-Ease 402 Wheat for the main color and 107 Blue Heather love that color of blue!! is what I used for the stripe.

I like seed stitch because it looks the same front or back. (Knit 1, Purl 1).You should have seen my first attempt at seed stitch. I kept losing track of whether I was supposed to knit or purl. (I was watching Downton Abbey for the umpteenth time!) Finally, when I learned to recognize the difference between a purl stitch and a knit stitch, which is explained so well in Stitch'nBitch, I was able to look away from my knitting to watch the amazing Maggie Smith, then look back and actually be able to tell which stitch I was supposed to do (a very useful skill.)

So now that spring has sprung, I've at last learned how to knit winter hats. Oh well, there's always next year!

P.S. If you do nothing else, be sure to go to Spud & Chloe and see the cutest sheep ever outside of Yorkshire! He's the project-after-next on my knitting list. :-)

Author, Second Chance - A Tale of Two Puppies

Check out my handcrafted soaps at Soap'n'Such

This post is linked to: Making the World Cuter Mondays
and Something I Whipped Up Monday
and Motivate Me Monday
and Making Monday Marvelous
and  Wandering Wednesday

and We Did it Wednesday
and Thrilling Thursday
and Favorite Things Friday
and I'm Lovin' it Friday
and It's a Hodgepodge Friday