Pattern: Loosely based on the Debbie Bliss Simple Hat, at a finer gauge, in the round, with a moss stitch band. Flower from Marnie’s Frog Pond pattern.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in colour 340503. Flower made from kitchen cotton and easy wash merino scraps
Needles: 3.25mm Addi Natura DPNs, 3.25mm Addi Bamboo circular & 3.25mm Addi turbo circular

Well both the hat and my cycle have come through the nail biting suspense of the last week with a fairly decent outcome. The hat is in one piece again, all be it with an ever so slightly visible grafting line, and my transfer is to go ahead next Tuesday. My hormones leave something to be desired but were passable in the end, perhaps it will all come out in the wash like the most obvious signs of the grafting.

After cutting the top off the hat I picked up the stitches of the brim and knit upwards for about an inch. I didn’t actually measure it so I can’t tell you exactly how much I added. I then grafted the two pieces back together. Again, many thanks to Knitty. I think ripping the brim and knitting down from the severed top would have produced the most seamless outcome but I went with the grafting because I was too impatient to wash and dry the yarn from the old brim before fixing the problem.

The cardigan is done too but that will have to wait for another day because I just can’t get a decent photo of it.

My cycle is in a similar state to this hat. It might come back together quite nicely. And then again it might not.

Yesterday Isabelle and I went to visit Amber, Ella and Arky. I gave Arky the first Simple Hat and he kindly tried out the moss stich flower version too. The moss stitch flower hat was too short, like an inch too short, so I came home and took a pair of scissors to it. My grafting isn’t bad. Well it wasn’t last time I tried - though that was quite a while ago - and I keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end.

I admit to being a lot less worried about the hat than I am about my cycle, possibly because I won’t have to wait until January to make another hat if this one doesn’t come good.

Isn’t Arky gorgeous?

So I used that last ball of yarn to make a second hat, which matches the rest of the set a little better I think. Now I have an excuse to keep knitting these until I get a pair:

That is shoe number four and I think it might be a match, or near enough, to shoe number three. And there is enough yarn left over to make one more shoe so eventually I may even get two pairs that match. Wouldn’t that be something.

For those of you who are interested my cycle hasn’t been cancelled yet, I think it will probably go through, but my clinic seem less than enthusiastic about my being right, which makes everything a little more stressful than it really needs to be.

Pattern: Simple Hat, at a finer gauge, in the round
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in colour 340503
Needles: 3.5mm Addi Natura DPNs

It does seem a bit long and narrow, but it’s very stretchy so hopefully it will fit around the same age as the cardigan. I do love baby things, so sweet and small and quick to knit. I just have to finish those shoes now so that I can get on with making a quilt for a baby that was born last week without our ever knowing there was a pregnancy… Um, must keep in better contact with our friends.

I cast on the Simple Hat a few days ago and have been knitting away at it off and on. The pattern is intended for DK weight yarn so I had to do some math to convert it for the finer gauge of the cashmerino baby. It’s a bit sad quite how long it took me to work this out, I was once good at math. I spent the first night struggling yet again with my DPN technique for managing the oncoming needle until I finally remembered where to put my thumb and it has been plain sailing since then. This hat is not exactly rocketing along as we were supposed to have a house warming party over the weekend, which was cancelled due to the small person developing an upset tummy that we felt obliged not to share with our guests…. First there was party planning to keep me busy, directly followed by a lot of ickyness all round. It has been a strange, quiet few days around here and I have picked up the needles only occasionally.

As for the Jacket With Moss Stitch Bands, a friend has offered up her 4 month old son to model my cardigan for a nine month old girl… I am waiting to see what it looks like on him before deciding whether to rip or not. I am hoping to leave well enough alone.