Itty-bitty hats

My brother very kindly gave me the Itty-Bitty Hats book as a baby shower gift, and it really sparked the knitting resurgence I have been experiencing.

I started with the upside-down daisy hat, which I gave to the other couple in our childbirth education class. They were scheduled to have their baby Tuesday morning. I haven't heard from them yet, but I'm hoping everything went well! The hat came out really tiny. I meant to make the 0-6 month size but accidentally ended up making the "newborn" size -- silly me, thinking 0-6 months would be the smallest size! I'm hoping it will fit the baby for the first few weeks at least. I knitted the petals and did most of the finishing in the waiting room at my midwives' practice during my 3-hour gestational diabetes test, and it was a great distraction from the fasting and blood drawing. (It really wasn't that bad, and happily I passed the test!)

I used Cleckheaton Country 8-ply for most of the hat. It's a relatively inexpensive superwash wool from Australia. Not the softest yarn I've ever worked with, but it softens up quite a bit after washing. The petals are made of a velvety superwash merino also from Australia, called "Extra." For the stem I used leftover Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino from Courtney's placket sweater. It reminded me how much I loved working with that yarn. It's so soft and shiny and I love the subtle color variations that result from the kettle-dyeing. And it comes in such generous skeins! I haven't seen it anywhere but Brooklyn General, and now that I don't live in Brooklyn anymore, I'm not sure when I'll get back over there. The Tess folks won't be at Rhinebeck either, sadly. I asked the owner of my new LYS if she ever carries Tess yarns...apparently she used to, but "they make it difficult to do business with them." Not sure what that means exactly. They have a web site, but it's not a web store, and it doesn't have pictures of every colorway. At some point I may call them up and try to describe some colors I'm interested in and see what happens.


Upside-down daisy hat
Started: June 23, 2007
Finished: June 25, 2007
Pattern: From Itty-Bitty Hats
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8-ply (purple, yellow), Extra 100% Australian Merino (white), Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino (green)
Needles: US 6 dpns


I also made this pumpkin hat, recipient to be determined. This one actually is the 0-6 month size, and it's considerably larger. The leaf really wants to curl, but otherwise it's pretty cute.


Little pumpkin hat
Started: June 25, 2007
Finished: June 28, 2007
Pattern: From Itty-Bitty Hats
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8-ply (orange, brown), Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino (green)
Needles: US 6 Denises, US 6 dpns