Knitting this Fall

With a baby, a toddler, a full-time job, and a pandemic going on, I didn't get much knitting done this summer and fall.  But I did get a little bit done.  The baby needed a hat, and I wanted to knit it for him, so my mom was gracious enough to watch the kids while I sat in her family room and knitted almost half a hat one day in October (even though we don't live in our house, she's the 5th member of our household for pandemic purposes).  I used about half a skein of the same Malabrigo Rios I used for his newborn frog sweater, which no longer fits.  The pattern is Tin Can Knits' Beloved hat/bonnet. I made the toddler size for my then 7-month-old, and it fits him perfectly.  

The other knitting project I finished was a pair of socks for a friend.  Her younger son has Down syndrome, and World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on 3/21 by wearing crazy socks.  When I saw this pattern from one of my favorite knitting bloggers, I knew I had to make these for my friend!  The yarn is KnitPicks Felici and Stroll sock.  Blue and yellow are the Down syndrome awareness colors.  I started these socks in early March and had the wild idea that I'd finish them in time for World Down Syndrome Day 2020, but I didn't manage it.  Instead, I managed to finish them in October and did a front porch drop-off at my friend's house.  She was delighted with them, and pointed out that I finished them in plenty of time for World Down Syndrome Day 2021!

Here's a photo of the index card I used to keep track of the pattern.  It was fun and fairly easy to knit!

 

Bucket hats!

When I started making the Paddington Bear shirt for my nephew, I very quickly decided that he needed a red bucket hat to go with it - just like Paddington wears.  I had already downloaded the free Oliver + S bucket hat pattern, and it was perfect!

Of course I had to make one for my niece, too.  Hers is a yellow floral with brown floral lining.

Both hats are size Medium (3-5 years), even though my niece is almost 3 and my nephew is 15 months - the internet says the hats run small.  From pictures, it looks like the hats fit well and are adorable.

They are fully reversible, and I used this tutorial to finish them without any hand sewing. I hear that the kids like the hats.  Which is good, because the dog didn't like it at all.

My Stripey Hat

I finished knitting my new hat on the drive to our backpacking trip.  The first night, we camped by the cars and my hat fell off multiple times in the night, so in the morning I quickly added braided ties.  Those worked well to keep it on the rest of the trip!

I don't have a super clear picture of the hat in action, but this one shows the hat okay and the beautiful lake where we camped our last night backpacking.  It was a wonderful trip!

Pattern: Lil' Midi Bean pilot cap
Size: midi
Yarn: grey fingering-weight yarn left over from this sweater, held double, and my Wensleydale handspun, not doubled
Needles: Size US5 bamboo DPNs
Started/Completed: August 2015
Modifications: I'm pretty sure my gauge was different from what the pattern suggested.  Also I added the stripes and used symmetric increases and a centered double decrease.

Striped hat - with Handspun!

Robert and I are planning a backpacking trip soon, and I decided I want a new hat.  I don't usually like to wear hats, because I don't like the feeling of having something touch my eyebrows (and any normal hat that comes down far enough to cover my ears seems to touch my eyebrows). I decided a long time ago that what I need is a bonnet or pilot cap of some sort.  Robert suggested that I should use my handspun, so I decided to knit this pilot cap in stripes, using leftover yarn from this sweater held double for the grey and my Wensleydale handspun for the stripes.

So far it's working pretty well.  I had to start over, because I initially started knitting the larger size (starting with 139 stitches).  It quickly became clear that it was WAY too big for me.  Now I'm using the "midi" size instructions, and it seems like the size will probably work out okay.  If it doesn't, I still have the dorkiest hat ever (an orange and red Klein bottle hat) to fall back on.