September 11th, 2004
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Just in time for a baby shower tomorrow night, I’ve completed booties and hat. They wanted something pink, so it’s pink with a vengeance. The hat is a combination of the “Li’l Devil Baby Hat” and the “Official Kitty62 Hat” from kittyville.com. I believe there’s an adult devil hat in “Stitch ‘N Bitch” too. In retrospect, I could have gone smaller and it would have been fine. The hat and booties together only used about 2/3 of a skein of Lamb’s Pride Worsted, and I even doubled it on the booties to make ’em nice and thick. So the whole project came in for less than 7 bucks in materials. We’ll leave aside the question of labor, of course.
It’s too small for my five-year-old, but nonetheless I made her put it on (before I attached the pom-poms) so I could see it. And now I must share with all of you.
I do like to do something new for every project, so for this one, the new thing was a provisional cast-on around a crochet chain. And pom-poms. I’d never made pom-poms. Pretty easy, since McGyverish directions are out there on the web. 🙂
I’m pleased! Now, I must wrap. And no, I won’t be hand-crafting the wrapping paper.
(Liddsville for those not familiar with Sid and Marty Krofft.)
The ice storm (and intermittent cable outages) inspired me to knit a hat.
This was an experiment in using circular and double-pointed needles. It turned out to be a learning experience in other ways too. Lessons learned: swatch for gauge! I was sort of basing it off of this pattern, but decided that instead of size 8 needles, since I wanted it bigger, I’d use 11’s. Besides, I was using Berroco’s Chinchilla Bulky instead of Chinchilla, which knits up, well, bulky. However, I omitted the wool, which would have provided more firmness, in retrospect. The result of going into it blind instead of swatching for gauge (knitting a test patch to see whether or not the stitches will be the size you need) was that the hat is too big and too loose. Warm, though.
Other lesson: Chinchilla bulky is a bear to fix mistakes in. It’s so fuzzy you can’t see the stitches to correct any problems. On the up side, it’s so fuzzy you can’t see the problems, either, so it works right out.
My daughter, however, loves it. She wants me to make a little one, just for her. When we went out earlier, she insisted on wearing my hat, and I had to wear hers. She’s four, so we drew some looks. I think she’s got kind of a Grimace from McDonald’s thing going on there, but still, she’s mighty cute.
