One little promise she was gonna keep

Pattern: Nottingham by Melissa Mall
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted (100% superwash merino), colorway Dublin
Needles: U.S. 8 Harmony wood Options 32″ circular (magic-loop style)

Pattern: Lacy Girly Fancy Hat by Alexandra Walters
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted, colorway Deep Ocean
Needles: U.S. 7 Harmony wood Options 32″ circular (magic-loop style)

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Kate who arrived just slightly ahead of schedule. When she was a tiny baby, this hat fit her perfectly. But now she’s growing up, and her mom requested a new hat. A blue hat, but maybe one with a few frills. Maybe even a ribbon.

The little girl had a big brother, and his head got cold in winter, too. Maybe, said the mom, he could have his own hat. Green would be nice.  The mom makes earrings and great cookies; maybe the knitter would like some in return.

No problem, said the knitter.  Sounds great.

Cables for the brother, thought the knitter.

A pretty picot edge for the sister.

Two balls of yarn, a few days with the needles, and mom has two children that are ready for winter.  And the knitter has the pleasure of the making.  Everybody wins.

The sun melts the chill from our lives

Pattern: Chain Chomp Hat by Knitting Ninja
Yarn: NaturallyCaron.com Country (25% merino, 75% acrylic), colorways Black and Silver Service; Berroco Comfort (acrylic and nylon), colorway White
Needles: U.S. 9 Harmony wood Options 24″ circular, magic-loop style

Pattern: Official Kitty62 Hat by Kitty Schmidt
Yarn: Berroco Comfort (acrylic and nylon), colorway White
Needles: U.S. 7 Harmony wood Options 24″ circular, magic-loop style

His sister got Archer a Mario Kart lunchbox for his birthday, because above all else Archer loves Mario. Her brother got Cady Gray a Hello Kitty lunchbox for her birthday, because above all else Cady Gray loves Hello Kitty. Their mother knit them both hats that celebrate their above-all-else loves: a Chain Chomp hat for Archer, a Hello Kitty hat for Cady Gray. And she rejoiced that the internet gave her such marvels to emulate and give to her children.

The main part of the chomper is light worsted weight held double; the chain is five-stitch I-cord; the teeth are white worsted-weight held single, left over from Cady Gray’s hat; the eyes are felt circles sewn on. When Archer pulled it out of the gift bag, he said, “It’s a hat.” I said, “Do you know anything that looks like that, with teeth and a broken chain?” With a smile slowly spreading over his face, he said, “It’s a Chain Chomper.”

I was so taken by ridiculousknit’s version on Ravelry — it’s even her Ravatar — that I copied it, with her kind help. The eyes and nose are buttons; the whiskers are half-assed embroidery; the bow is leftover Plymouth Encore from her Drive-Thru sweater, knit into a long rectangle which is folded, wrapped with a smaller rectangle, and sewn down.  The pom-poms are the same yarn done up with Clover’s absolutely magical little pom-pom maker in one of the medium sizes. I knew Cady Gray would adore this hat, and she didn’t take it off for the rest of the day.

This is precisely the picture I’ve been looking forward to ever since the beginning of the month, when I started working on these hats. It’s the image I’ve had in my head right down to the last toothy smile. No need to thank me, kids — I’ll thank you, instead, for making my dream of birthday happiness come true.

Crossed my fingers just for luck

Pattern: Fish Hat [Dead Or Alive?] by Thelma Egberts
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted (75% acrylic, 25% wool)
Needles: U.S. 7 Harmony wood Options 32″ circulars (Magic Loop style)

See, I was thinking to myself, “Self, is Cady Gray the type of girl who would like to look as though a dead fish were eating her head?”

No question.

When I started stashbusting — and this is my first stashbusting project of 2009 — I couldn’t wait to use up the extra yarn from Cady Gray’s Drive-Thru. And I knew just what I wanted to do with it. Fish hats! The fishier the better.

This free pattern from the latest issue of Knitty has become something of a sensation. And why not? Who doesn’t love fish? Who wouldn’t want to appear to an unsuspecting public as though a sea creature were sucking one’s brains out of one’s head? It’s a universal human desire, as the Greeks understood so well.

I went for a special modification to make this hat Archer-friendly. (Even though this one’s for Cady Gray, Archer needed a little stake in it. The next one’s for him.) The stripes are all Fibonacci numbers, generated by the wonderful Biscuits and Jam Random Stripe Generator. Archer’s smile of secret delight when I read the number of rows in each stripe to him — 1, 1, 3, 2, 8, 2, 3, 13, 8 — was something to treasure.

This fish hat played something of a starring role in my presentation to the ICTE this past weekend. By the time I was done, the message was generally accepted, understood, and celebrated: Let there be fish hats on earth. And let it begin with me.

Tell all the stars above

Pattern: Drive-Thru by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted (75% acrylic, 25% wool)
Needles: U.S 7 and 8 Harmony wood circular (32″ and 60″)
Size: 6

One day last November while I was working on my FLS, Cady Gray, as she often does, asked me what I was knitting. “It’s a sweater,” I told her. And then, the inevitable next question, accompanied by hopeful doe eyes: “Is it for me?”

I promised I’d make her a sweater the very next thing, and I knew just which one: Wendy Bernard’s “Quicko-Cheapo.” It’s a simple bottom-up raglan, cardigan or pullover, with one main color and yoke stripes that use very little of three other colors.

And I knew just which yarn I would choose: Plymouth Encore, a workhorse wool-acrylic blend that comes in hundreds of colors. I had been swayed by a Ravelry thread singing the praises of Encore for items that need washability and a wide color choice. (Wouldn’t you know it that just as I was finishing the sweater, this thread about how much people hate Encore was going strong. That’s the way it is with Ravelry.)

I let Cady Gray pick out her own colors (with a little push from me into the brighter shades of her favorite “rainbow” hues). I ordered from Webs. But when the yarn came, Christmas knitting was in full swing. And then job number one after Christmas was completing the FLS. But I knew that the first project I wanted to cast on for 2009 was CG’s Drive-Thru, and on January 3, I did.

The knit could not have been more straightforward. And after weeks of lace and fiddly little gifts and finishing, the stockingette on the body — 9.5 wonderful inches of it — was so relaxing. And the bright blue color was delightful to watch emerging as a fabric. Before I knew it, I was putting the body on hold for the sleeves, which knit up quick as a wink Magic Loop style. After joining them to the body, I continued to Magic Loop it while going around the sleeves for several rounds; I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have that trick

Just when the stockingette and the blue start to get old, it’s time for the stripes. The pattern suggests spacing the decrease rounds so that they occur on a solid color row (instead of the transition rows when you’re stranding two colors), and I heartily concur — in fact, I can’t figure out how you’d do it any other way.

I decided on a bunch of little buttons rather than fewer bigger ones, and that may have been a miscalculation; the buttons are almost too small for the buttonholes. In a pinch I guess I could sew up the holes to make them a bit snugger, but I don’t think it will be necessary.

Cady Gray loves it. I convinced her to save it to wear tomorrow to the first day back at school, but it was a tough sell — she had no interest in taking it off after I presented it to her this morning. A complete success both in her eyes, and in mine. She wanted a sweater of her own in all the colors of the rainbow, and I wanted a sweater that had all the simplicity and brightness of my little girl. I hope she’ll wear it and love it until it falls apart.

I’ve got my imaginary friend

Pattern: 8-Trick Pocket Hat by TECHKnitter
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK (100% superwash merino wool), colorways Peach Cream, Terra Cotta, Hollyberry, Frost, and Dusk
Needles: U.S. 5 Harmony Options 32″ circular, U.S. 3 Nickel Options 32″ circular (at top)

The garden gnome is an elusive creature. About the only way you can lure her out of the shade on a hot summer day is to offer her a new hat.

I’ve had this knit-along pattern — intended to teach several new techniques — in my queue since early in the year. When I finished off all my heavier-weight, bigger-needle knits last week, and found myself blearily peering at sock yarn deep into the shadowy night, I knew it was time to cast on something a bit chunkier.

Did I rock the new techniques? Well, to be honest, knowing that I was planning to three of these babies made me sloppy. I didn’t try to do everything perfectly the first time out — I treated hat #1 as a learning opportunity. Here’s the verdict:

Jogless join-in-the-round: Crummy. I started my usual long-tail cast-on before noticing that there was a new trick to try here, so I really didn’t do this one at all. (However, I remedied my omission when starting hat #2 just an hour ago.)

Reverse stockingette tubular knit-on hem: Awesome. Well, as far as the tubular knit-together part went. Talk about a cool trick — making a hem with no sewing! Just knit the bottom edge together with the live stitches, and off you go. But I twisted my join-in-the-round … or one of the early rows … or something, so I had an ugly patch of stretched yarn and jaggy edge right at the start. Again, knowing it was just practice, I blithely let it go.

Jogless back-join color change: Improving. I didn’t pay close enough attention the first couple of times. I read over the instructions, figured I’d gotten the gist, and boldly gave it a go.

Hm, still a jog, not right. I also didn’t “travel” the color changes to the left as I went … again because I didn’t bother to read that part carefully. By stripe #3 I’d gone back to see what I missed (slipping stitches in rounds 1 and 2), and tried it the correct way:

Still not sure it’s exactly as intended, but definitely closer — after a blocking the comma-dip-down at the change may be less visible.

Flat top for a ribbed hat: Well, given how pointy this hat is, I’m not sure it makes much difference. But I did pretty well at my Kitchenering at the end. This next time I’m making the watch cap size, so the flatness will be more noticeable. As cute as my gnome hat turned out, Noel probably does not want a hat with a “reservoir tip,” as he put it.

It was a crafty weekend all around at our house; the oppressive heat made it inadvisable to do anything other than stay inside. So I busted out these fuse-beading kits I’d gotten on clearance at Hobby Lobby last weekend and let the kids go to town. You put the tiny beads in pattern on a pegboard, then fuse them together with a hot iron to make a solid object.

Cady Gray made an owl.

Archer was proud of his caterpillar.

Another successful sibling bonding activity!

What will it take till you believe in me

Pattern: Just a plain ol’ garter stitch scarf
Yarn: Baby Bee Dreamy Chenille (90% polymide, 10% acrylic), Carousel colorway
Needles: U.S. 10 1/2 wooden straights (custom-made)

A few weeks ago, Cady Gray came out of her room to ask for something after bedtime. I was knitting my Clapotis. “Is that a scarf?” she asked. “Is it for me?” When I said it wasn’t, her face crumpled. I promised to knit her a scarf in her favorite color — rainbow — and the very next day we went to Hobby Lobby to pick out the yarn.

We got six or seven different kinds of multicolored yarn off the shelves, and this is the one she picked: a bulky chenille in colors one might describe as more fluorescent than rainbow. Pretty much every color you’d want in a highlighter is somewhere in there — blue, pink, yellow, green.  Yarn Bee and Baby Bee are the Hobby Lobby store brands.  The hardest part was putting all the other selections back up on the shelves.

I got started on a garter stitch scarf right away, casting on 25 stitches and knitting as fast as I could. When I got near the end of the first skein, about four or five feet in, I asked her if it was long enough. “Nope!” she replied gleefully. How much longer do you want it? “This much longer!” she exclaimed, holding her little arms out as wide as they could go.

When she finally approved, she wrapped the scarf around herself as many times as it would go. Then she put it over her head and pretended she was a princess. Then she spread it out on the floor and asked me to watch how fast she could run its length. A demanding customer, but every designer should have such an enthusiastic connoisseur of fashion to model her creations.