A Day at the Beach

Pattern : Children's Cotton Hats by Kim Hamlin (Last Minute Knitted Gifts)
Yarn : Rowan RYC Silk Cotton (Cucumber)
Needle : 4.5mm
Size : Toddler


A cool refreshing drink.

A straw.

A little summer hat knit out of luxurious Rowan Silk Cotton, with a yellow ribbon fluttering in the breeze.

A great way to spend the afternoon.

Caitlin's Summer Hat

I decided to rip out the first bobble hat and re-do it from scratch using the 2nd ball of yarn - thankfully there was just enough to finish it off. And since precious little heads need protection from our very hot tropical sun, I modified it into a summer hat with a little brim.

Today I gave it to the (less than) 1 month old recipient, and to my amazement.. it FIT! Errr, I mean to say, (cough, cough).... based on my thorough research on baby head sizes and careful accurate measuring, of course it fit, (cough, cough), I didn't mean to imply that I simply winged it and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.... not that at all....

So to celebrate a successful little project, I'm officially naming this Caitlin's Summer Hat, and sharing the pattern here. Word of warning though, I fudge (A LOT) when crocheting, and if the maths doesn't always work out, please be patient and throw in / take out a few stitches to suit your fancy. Or you can always email me :)

Caitlin's Summer Hat (Free Crochet Pattern by Iro Iro Knits)

Yarn : Sport / Light DK weight cotton (less than 1 ball of yarn)
Hook : Clover Size 6/0 (4mm)
Gauge : 22 sc to 4 inches

Measurements for 0-3 month old baby
Circumference @ crown = 14in
Diameter @ crown = 4.5in
Depth from top of crown to brim = 5in

Stitch description : “Bobble St” – 5 hdc in the same st, pull loop of last hdc through top of first hdc

CROWN
R1 : Starting with an adjustable crochet ring, ch1, 6 sc in ring. Pull ring to close. Join. = 6sc
R2 : ch1, 2 sc in each st, join = 12 sc
R3 : ch1, (sc in next 1 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep* until end of round, join = 18 sc
R4 : ch1, (sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep* until end of round, join = 24 sc
R5 : ch1, (sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 30 sc
R6 : ch1, (sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 36 sc
R7 : ch1, (sc in next 5 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 42 sc
R8 : ch1, (sc in next 6 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 48 sc
R9 : ch1, (sc in next 7 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 54 sc
R10: ch1, (sc in next 8 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 60 sc
R11: ch1, (sc in next 9 st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join = 66 sc (diameter at crown should be around 4.5in)
(For a bigger crown size, continue increasing each row as above until desired circumference.)

SIDES
R12 – R18 : ch1, sc in each st across, join = 66 sc (for a deeper hat, increase the number of rows here accordingly)
R19 : ch2, hdc in next 4 st, bobble st, (hdc in next 5 st, bobble st)*, rep * until end of round, join.
R20 : ch2, hdc in each st across, join.
R21 : ch2, hdc in next st, bobble st, (hdc in next 5 st, bobble st)*, rep until 3 st left, hdc in remaining 3 st, join.
R22 : ch2, hdc in each st across, join
R23 : ch2, hdc in next 4 st, bobble st, (hdc in next 5 st, bobble st)*, rep * until end of round, join.

BRIM
R24 : ch1, (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round,
R25 : ch1, (sc in next st, 2 sc in next st)*, rep * until end of round, join
(above 2 rows create a slight ruffle at brim)
R26 : ch1, sc in each st across until end of round, join.

Pull loop through and cut. Weave in ends.

Cables & Lace Kimono Cardigan

There's no other way to say it - I'm a masochist.

My little one is due in about 5 weeks, and when that happens, I don't know if I will even have time to breathe, let alone knit. So the most practical thing to do (knitting-wise that is), would be to knit baby items, or small quick projects like hats, scarves, dishcloths.. you get the idea.

Instead, I cast on for this.

It's my biggest and most ambitious project to date - I've only ever done 1 cable project, and about 3 lace projects in my entire knitting life. Not to mention that this pattern is 10 pages (!) long, is for the 'Intermediate' knitter (I consider myself newbie-ish with a phobia for anything tough) and requires more than 1000m of yarn. All I know is, I saw the pattern, I have the yarn for it, and I cast-on. And after the first 10 rows (at which point the pattern says 'following pattern as established above), I spent another 2 hours trying to figure out which charts to follow and when.

Thankfully, the knitting itself is not tough, it was the actual interpretation of the pattern that got me freaked. So I went to the stationary shop and bought post-it flags and pasted them all over my pattern, and would painstakingly move the flags down each row whenever I worked it. If the flags should drop or anyone should move them by mistake, I will kill them.

In other less stressful knitting news, I found stray balls of yarn in my stash.. they were about 10 years old. Took 2 hours to crochet this little summer hat in a nubbly cotton yarn. It finished up so quickly and turned out so cute that I wanted to go out and buy more of that yarn (go figure).

Feeling high from my superfast hat, I started another bobble hat of my own design. As I was crocheting the third row of bobbles, I noticed that it was an entirely different shade of green from the top of the hat. Knitting 101 - pls make sure that dyelots are the same? Yeah - try telling that to stray little balls of yarn whose labels have disintegrated.

So the bobble hat sits unfinished as I try to convince myself that the yellow-ish tinge in the third row of the bobbles is actually a "design element".