Tag: hats

  • Baby Yoda Costume

    It’s finished! I’ve got everything ready to send off to Alexander this week. After felting the hat last week, I then soaked the ears in watered-down PVA glue and propped them up on newspaper to dry. They took a lot longer than I expected (nearly four days), but they look great. I sorta pinched and pulled them to make them a little more curly and Yoda-looking. The pattern is here. I knitted it out of Naturally Alpine 14ply on big needles, and I had plenty left over from a single hank. I’m just making a bit of i-cord now to tie under his chin if necessary.

    Felted Baby Yoda Hat

    Baby Yoda Sweater

    Baby Yoda Socks

    The second piece of the costume is the Baby Yoda Sweater, which I knitted on 4mm needles out of some completely random yarn from my stash. (The two sleeves are actually different yarns, but they’re so close you can’t tell. I figure Yoda probably wove his himself, so any variation is probably a good thing.) There’s an i-cord tie on the inside as well as the outside.

    And the socks are just the pièce de résistance, aren’t they? I started knitting just plain socks out of the leftover wool, thinking Alexander would need something to keep his feet warm, when the Snook pondered aloud, “You know what you should do? Put three toes on the end!” BRILLIANT. So there’s no pattern here; I just made them up as I went.

    I can’t wait til Kristen posts a picture of him wearing it!

  • Baby Yoda Hat

    As part of our barter arrangement for the Baker’s Edge pan, I’m knitting a Yoda Halloween costume for Kristen’s son Alexander. I found a great pattern for a felted Yoda hat along with a crossover Yoda sweater. I finished knitting the hat last week, so it was finally time to felt the sucker. I was a bit nervous… but it worked! Check out the before and after:

    Before felting   After felting

    How cool is that? I blew up a balloon to the size of Alexander’s head, and that’s what the hat is blocking on in the second picture. Now I just need to get some fabric stiffener so I can make the ears stick out properly. And the jumper’s all knitted; all I have to do is sew it up. I can’t wait to see what it looks like on him!

  • More Baby Stuff

    I just can’t stop. First are a bunch of accessories to go with the argyle vest: a hat, booties, and stripey socks. The hat and socks are both out of Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino 2, while the booties are from Patons’s Quick & Easy Baby Knits. (Note: I still have to thread ribbon through the eyelets on the booties. I just didn’t have any handy.)

    Baby Accessories

    The other thing is a fancy washcloth, knitted solely because I still had a bunch of cotton left over from the tart hat. The stitch pattern is a garter stitch basket weave with a moss stitch border. I think it’s finally time to send all this stuff off while Penn can still wear it!

    Washcloth

  • Craft Weekend

    Argyle VestWhat do baby pirates wear? Arrrrrgyle!
    This was a very crafty weekend. I just can’t stop knitting baby clothes! They’re like knitting crack. As soon as you finish one, you’re on to the next. My sister made an offhand comment in an e-mail recently about dressing her kid (who is now two weeks overdue) in an argyle sweater, and I immediately thought of this design. It’s Debbie Bliss’s Argyll Slip Over from Baby Cashmerino 2. I casted this sucker on Thursday night and I finished it up this morning. Isn’t it cute? It’s got two buttons at the back of the neck too so it’ll fit over the bub’s noggin. And while some might laugh at the idea of knitting a sweater vest for a newborn, I say with a name like “Penn” we might as well get the kid started now! (I’ve also got enough left over to make some matching socks, I think.)

    You’d think that’d be enough craftiness for one weekend, right? WELL, YOU’RE WRONG. On to the baked goods! The Snook made the sort that you can actually eat… while I made the sort that a baby can wear. Miss Fee came over for a visit today, and the Snook stunned us both with this tea of homemade scones with whipped cream and jam. They were delicious. (For those wondering, a scone is not real far off from an American-style biscuit. Maybe just a little sweeter.) And then, the most frivolous baby knit of all time – the Baby Tart Hat. I couldn’t resist. Of course, I now also have arthritis. I knit that sucker TODAY, folks! The “crust” is Lana Gatto Jaipur while the “filling” is Debbie Bliss Cathay. So it’s basically all cotton, and the majority of it is purling bobbles. I’M SERIOUS; MY HANDS HURT. I think it’s worth it though. We’ve blown up a balloon to the appropriate baby head size and the dampened hat is now blocking. (Sis, I don’t care if you think this is the stupidest thing ever. I just want one picture of a chubby-cheeked baby wearing this thing.)

    Scones

    Baby Tart

  • Baby Outfit

    Baby OutfitYou know, I’d worry more about posting this and ruining the surprise for my sister if I didn’t already know that she hates surprises. (We’re talking about a girl who always wanted to open her Christmas presents the night before.) So she can see it now and then have the fun of opening it when it gets to her in a few weeks! The whole outfit is knitted out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which is just really lovely to knit with. The jacket is Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket (the same one I knit for Rohan a few weeks back), with tri-colour Fibonacci stripes. The pants are from Patons’ Quick and Easy Baby Knits. (I used the 4ply pattern but went up to the 3-month size since my tension is always tight.) The hat is the “Umbilical Cord Hat” from Stitch and Bitch. Now I just need to put buttons on the jacket and run some elastic through the waist of the pants. I’d debated on doing booties as well (and even did a trial run of the “sandals” from the Baby Cashmerino book), but I’m almost out of wool. And if this kid takes after my sister at all, he’s gonna be barefoot until he goes to school anyway. 🙂

  • The Sign of the Beast

    I'm the devil!

    I haven’t given you a knitting update in ages, have I? Yes, that’s me in a custom knit devil-horned hat. The pattern’s from Debbie Stoller’s book Stitch ‘N’ Bitch and I whipped it up in about six hours. (Pattern note for those playing at home: I used two balls of Heirloom 12-ply on 6mm needles.) I discovered some black wool in my stash so I might try the kitty-cat hat next. Now I just have to wait for it to get cold enough to wear!

    Catching up on other projects… I also made a jumper/sweater for my iPod! My old case was getting grubby and I rarely use the belt clip anyway. There’s a pattern in Stitch ‘N’ Bitch but it requires sewing, so I just made up my own. (I started by knitting a flat rectangle about the size of the bottom of the iPod, and then picked up around the edges and knit in the round to the top. Then I cast off the front and continued knitting flat to make the flap. I even put a yarn-over in the right spot to leave a hole for the headphone jack!) I haven’t sewn any velcro on it yet, which is why I have to hold the flap closed here. Also note: I finally got my iPod in-ear headphones! As Ron suggested, they are a bit tinny. I only really notice it on the badly-ripped songs though. I’ve fiddled with the equalizer settings to boost the bass and that helps. But I’m back in the Cult of the White Wires!

    Another recent finished object is the red scarf I’m sporting below. The wool is some handspun and hand-dyed stuff I bought at Camp Creative in January. The thickness varies from thread-thin to finger-thick. I just cast on eight stitches on my 10mm needles and knit til I ran out of wool. It went about six feet. I’m loving it. Oh, and my sister tells me that “skinny scarves are in” in the US, so unbeknownst to me I’m already in style for the winter!

    Oh, and there’s a work in progress in that last picture too: my muscles. I’m on Week 3 of my weight training regimen and I’m feeling pretty darn buff!

  • Gryffindor Stocking Cap

    Gryffindor Stocking CapHere’s my latest knitting project, a stocking cap that I whipped up earlier this week. As you can see, I’m still trying to use up leftover bits of Harry Potter scarf yarn. The pattern is pretty easy to follow and it’s a good one to get familiar with using double-pointed needles (for knitting in the round). The only part I had trouble with was the tassel. Mine is all kinds of wonky. But the rest is cute, huh?

  • Purdue Hat

    Me in the Purdue Hat Side view of Purdue hat

    Feedback needed.
    My brother is a sophomore in college and I asked him recently what he’d like me to knit him. He said a hat would be nice, and that “the more unique the better”. This is what I came up with. (Don’t worry; he never reads the site so it won’t ruin the surprise.) I based it on this pattern for an “ear flap hat”. Instead of using the provided zig-zag design, though, I decided to try my hand at doing some fair isle knitting. So I laid out a design using the name of his university in their school colors. It came out pretty well! Slightly wonky shaped, but I figure some blocking this weekend (i.e. me wearing it around the house a lot) will square it up. Now I’m wondering… Should I put a pompom on top? He said “unique.” Would any of you guys actually wear a hat with a pompom on it? Is this whole discussion moot because it’s so dorky he’d never wear it regardless? Please advise. (I’ve set up a poll to register your thoughts on the issue.)

  • Funky Hat

    Funky Hat: Last week I figured it was time to try something new with the knitting, so I settled on this funky (yet easy) hat. It’s easy because you don’t do any increasing or decreasing; you just basically knit a tube with a circular needle and then close off the top (like a square). Then that bit kinda flops over. It’s also got twisted rib brim and little braids that hang off the back corners. (I’m going to put beads on mine as soon as I can get to the bead shop this weekend.) Since I’ve still got tons of Gryffindor yarn left over (hint hint – anybody want a scarf?), I decided to do it in Gryffindor stripes. Pretty cute, huh? The only flaw was that I grossly overestimated the diameter of my own head, so it’s not a very snug fit. But at least I know now, right?

    Funky hat       Funky hat side view

    And before you say anything, Sis, yes, I know I need to pluck my eyebrows. I’ve just been too busy with the craftiness. 🙂