It’s been a pretty busy winter for me. Holidays as usual, but I started working again on the first of December. Work really does interfere with life!
So, I started Christmas gifts early (for me). I decided to knit hats for my elder son’s family. They were planning a trip to Germany over the holidays to visit family stationed there. Since they were leaving on the 19th, we decided to celebrate our Christmas on the 16th. Great. Now it was going come even faster!
I decided to start with the girls hats. I saw a cute knitted hat that was made to look like a cupcake. Perfect, right? I did not realize it was going to take me four hats before I figured out how to do it (I did not have a pattern). Then there was guessing the right size. I did have my son measure the girls heads. They weren’t that different, at least in the knitting world. Don’t know if that was good or bad.
Toddler size cupcake hats with a cherry on top!
By the time I got the pattern figured out I decided to make the  same hat for each of the girls. One with a blue band and one with lavender. I still had lots of yarn and I could just picture the girls heads bobbing in the crowds. They would be easy to see anyway.
As simple as hats are I seem to have trouble with the bands. I’m either making them too tight or they tend to stretch too much and don’t feel snug. At times I actually felt like going somewhere to find a child to try these on. It turns out that I have a small head and not that much bigger than either of my grand daughters. So I was constantly putting it on my head to gauge the fit. The unfortunate thing is that you can’t try it on until it’s almost finished! And the fact that these were knitted flat and sewn up after the band was knitted.
All in all I liked the way they turned out…
Two colors of tweed with stripes make this a hat for anyone.
The next hat I worked on was just a simple tweed with stripes. I figured my son would like it simple… it would go with anything. I started with the brown tweed and added a couple stripes of grey tweed before starting the decreases.
Again I was working without a pattern… I seem to do that a lot. Then my friend came over. She goes to a needlework class every week and knows someone who collects patterns for knitting and crocheting. I was lucky that she was able to borrow a few binders (yes I said binders) with hat patterns in them. I actually found a pattern that would be perfect!
This hat went much faster that the girls’ and the size was no problem. Amazing how fast it can go when someone else does all the thinking. Yea! At this point I was feeling pretty good… I just might finish everything in time for our early Christmas.
Large wooden button on a seed stitch band add great detail to this hat.
I had an idea for the type of hat I would knit for my daughter-in-law. A wide band in a seed stitch with a large wooden button. I would use the tweed grey yarn I used for the stripes in my son’s hat.
After searching the internet I found a pattern that was similar to what was in my head. I really liked the way it turned out…simple, but with the details of texture and the wooden button.
I did finish all four hats in time, but it was close. Work and doing some woodworking for other gifts made the time fly.
We had a great time… my two boys, their wives and the five grandchildren. I am blessed.
