I am sure you will all be shocked and surprised to hear I haven’t knit a stitch since Grace was born. It does, after all require two hands. I have been enjoying dressing her in her knits though!

Pattern: Yvonne’s Double Flower Cloth with some significant mods to make it a newborn baby sized hat
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in “Drift” with trim in “Powder Puff”
Needles: Addi Natura 3.25mm DPNs and circ

This was the last hat! It’s been done for quite a while now, even photographed for quite some time. Jesse is in the middle of undertaking a major overhaul of our photo management software & processes, leaving me somewhat disabled when it comes to getting stuff off the camera. It took figuring out a temporary work around to get the quilt photos off the camera for me to realise that I didn’t have to stop blogging just because I have no iphoto at the moment.

Anyway, back to this being the last hat. It’s quite hard to believe that all my planned baby craft projects are done, harder still to believe that I am 33 weeks pregnant. A few of the babies that all this knitting is for have already been born, so little parcels have been making their way out into the world. But this is what my baby knitting drawer looked like the day I finished this hat.

The only things missing from that drawer then were the first Baby Shedir, which had already been gifted and the Dolly Blanket, which is in hiding.

I had planned to reward myself with yarn for a baby blanket of some description once I got all of this done. But of course as soon as I cast off the hat I realised I had more gifts to make, for my midwife, OB and other carers… So now I am knitting another French Market Bag. Or not knitting it as the case may be. I went to bed before Isabelle last night and got up after her this morning. And I think I need a nap.

In the mean time Isabelle has been doing some amazing craft of her own.

Pattern: Yvonne’s Double Flower Cloth with some significant mods to make it a newborn baby sized hat
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in “Powder Puff”
Needles: Addi Natura 3.25mm DPNs and circ

Nothing like three simple baby hats to make a girl feel productive! So that was supposed to be it, all my gift/baby knitting done… two quilts to go. But it’s never that simple is it? I realised a) that I had forgotten somebody and b) that I could not possibly part with either the pink baby Shedir or the mini flower hat. I confess I am finding it hard to come to terms with giving away baby knitting at the moment - but there are so many long awaited babies arriving that it has to be done! Thus two more hats got added to the list. I rushed out yesterday afternoon and bought another ball of Rowan Calmer - here comes another baby Shedir and then another mini flower hat. And then the gift knitting really is done!

It was a cunning plan to turn a double flower wash cloth into a single flower baby hat that hinged on ending up with ten stitches per section. Eleven at most. I have twelve and I am honestly not sure quite how I miscalculated. My brain, it’s turning to mush. At least the flower’s pretty.

The problem is that last time I had twelve stitches per section it came out big enough for a 4 yr old, well nearly. I did actually rip that first flower hat back and reknit it with fourteen stitches per section. Now here I am with twelve again and I am a little puzzled, because really it looks like twelve stitches per section will be barely enough. Either my gauge has changed a lot or my eyes are deceiving me and it’s anyone’s guess which is more likely…

Pattern: Yvonne’s Double Flower Cloth with some mods to make it a hat
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in “Powder Puff”
Needles: Addi Natura 3.25mm DPNs and circ

The first flower hat is done. I have to say I am pretty disturbed that my 4yr old’s head is quite this large. Perhaps that is just because I am busy thinking about the next head and feeling very grateful that it won’t be that big when it comes out!

I used a picot cast off, which I am reasonably happy with. I am hoping it will look better, not worse, after a wash.

Three baby hats and two quilts to go….

So it seems that Yvonne’s Double Flower Cloth makes a pretty good hat. There are some problems though. Not least of which is the size of the thing, or the fact that I ran out of yarn well before managing to make it long enough to stay on the head that it is evidently going to fit best.

The question now is whether to rip it and make a baby size hat with the yarn I have or order another ball so I can finish this one and then make a baby sized hat. I guess there is also the small issue of how exactly to get it to fit a baby sized head. I may need to cut back to one flower on the crown.

You may notice that the above photo lacks something in the focus department. That was because the damn model would not stand still in the dim early morning light. Admittedly upping the ISO might have helped but I wasn’t properly awake yet. These were the photos Isabelle really wanted me to take.

Serious bed hair, snow mittens, sunnies and her breakfast smoothy.