Seed Stitch Ear flap Hat

This hat is essentially the same as the previous hat, but without the ears and the addition of seed stitch flaps and edge to prevent curling. This pattern was pulled from the hey julie blog but she only gives the details in the comments section so it was a little harder to find. This makes a small size hat perfect for a newborn / baby size. You could adjust as needed to make a bigger size, see Julie's blog for more info.

YARN: Lion Brand Superwash Merino Cashmere in Seafoam (super soft!)
72% Superwash Merino Wool, 15% Nylon, 13% Cashmere
AMOUNT: Less than 1 ball (87 yards / 80 meters)
NEEDLES: US 8

EARFLAPS (MAKE 2)
CO 5 stitches
R1: *P1, K1* to last stitch, P1
R2: KFB, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, KFB (7 sts)
R3: *K1, P1* to last stitch, K1
R4: KFB, *P1, K1* P1, KFB (9 sts)
R5: *P1, K1* P1
R6: KFB *K1, P1* K1, KFB (11 sts)
R7: *K1, P1* K1
Continue in seed stitch until piece measures 2.75" then cut leaving a 12" tail. Leave on needle.
Repeat.

HAT
Using cable cast-on, CO 9 sts on circular needle. Knit the 11 sts from the first ear flap, then CO 21 sts. K 11 from second ear flap, then CO 9 sts. (61 sts)

Join, being careful not to twist stitches, place marker and begin knitting seed stitch in the round. K1, P1 around for 5 rows, then switch to knit all. Continue knitting until hat is almost 3" and Knit the two stitches together right before the marker. 60 sts. Knit all around until the hat measures 3" from the cast-on edge. Then begin the decreases, switching needles when it becomes to tight to knit around:

Decrease R1: *K8, K2tog*
Decrease R2: Knit all
Decrease R3: *K7, K2tog*
Decrease R4: Knit all
Decrease R5: *K6, K2tog*
Decrease R6: Knit all
Decrease R7: *K5, K2tog*
Decrease R8: *K4, K2tog*
Decrease R8: *K3, K2tog*
Decrease R10: *K2, K2tog*
Decrease R11: *K1, K2tog*

Pull yarn through remaining stitches with a tapestry needle, pull through to the inside and weave in ends. There were two gaps near the ear flap that I tightened up using the ends was weaving in from the ear flaps.

Baby Ear flap Hat with Ears

front of hat

I really wanted to make a little baby hat with earflaps AND bear ears on top and it seemed impossible to find a pattern. I ended up combining a few different patterns together to get the result I wanted. It's a fun project and while it does take longer than a simple knit hat, it's still relatively quick. You still have time before Christmas!

YARN: Fiesta Cottonista in Painted Desert
50% Peruvian Pima Cotton, 50% Tencel
AMOUNT: Approx 1 ball (110 yards)
NEEDLES: US 5

I started by following the baby/kids earflap hat pattern from the hey julie blog in the middle 16" size (14", 16" and 18"):

Ear Flaps
CO 7 stitches.
Row 1: K1, P to last stitch, K1.
Row 2: K1, Kfb, K to last 2 stitches, Kfb, K1.
Repeat these two rows until there are 15 stitches on the needles.

Knit straight until piece measures 2.75" (3", 3.25").
Cut yarn, leaving a 12″ tail, and leave the earflap on its DPN.
Repeat for second ear flap.

Hat
Using a cable cast on, CO 10 (12, 14) stitches on the circular needle. Knit the 15 stitches from first ear flap, then CO 24 (27, 30) stitches. K15 from second ear flap, then CO 10 (12, 14).

Join, being careful not to twist stitches, place marker and begin knitting in the round. As you knit around this first row, you’ll notice four gaps, on either side of each ear flap. When you get to those, K2tog to close them up. At the end of the round, you should have 70 (77, 84) stitches on the needles.

Continue knitting all rounds until hat measures 3"″(3.5", 4"″) from the cast-on row. Then begin the decreases as follows, switching to DPNs or two circs when the diameter of the hat is too small for your circular needle:

(Decrease) Row 1: *K8 (9, 10), K2tog*
Row 2: K all sts
(Decrease) row 3: *K7 (8, 9), K2tog*
Row 4: K all sts
(Decrease) row 5: *K6 (7, 8), K2tog*
Row 6: K all sts

Decrease in this manner until there are 35 sts on the needles.
Then decrease in the same manner, omitting the “k all sts” rows, until there are 7 sts remaining.
Pull yarn through the last 7 sts with a tapestry needle, pull through to inside and weave in end.

Finishing
Weave in all ends. (I like to leave the tails where I ended the earflaps long so that I can use them to tighten up of otherwise correct anything that looks wonky around the earflap join area.)

back of hat

At this point I was a bit disappointed with how badly the edges were curling and knew even when I blocked, it's probably always going to curl a bit. To fix this, I decided to pick up and knit along the entire edge of the hat and earflaps.

Work your way around the hat edge, starting in the back, and make sure you have an even number of stitches. Once you're back where you started, begin a K1, P1 rib stitch. Go around the hat in this pattern twice and then bind off all stitches, keeping in the rib pattern. TIP: When binding off around the earflap curved edge, do so VERY loosely. If you bind off too tight here, the earflaps will pull weird towards the bottom.

Next I wanted to add the cute little bear ears on top. TIP: Leave a long tail here on BOTH ends of the ear piece to sew with! The ear pattern came from a hat on the Berroco website:

Ears (Make 2): With US 5 needles, cast on 11 sts. Work even in St st for 6 rows, end on WS.
Shape Top: Dec Row (RS): K1, k2 tog, k to last 3 sts, SSK, k1 – 9 sts. Rep this dec every RS row twice more, end on WS – 5 sts.
Inc Row (RS): K2, M1k, k1, M1k, k2 – 7 sts. In this manner, inc 1 st each side every RS row twice more, end on WS – 11 sts. Work 6 rows in St st. Bind off all sts. Fold ears in half and sew side seams. Sew one ear to each side of hat.

ear seam

So HOW do you sew the ears on? No idea. I found that the best option was to pin the ears in place so they were pretty well spaced and lined up, about 2" apart (1" over from the center of the top of the hat). Next I used one of the tail pieces of yarn and started the mattress stitch (shown here) to create an invisible seam. It worked! There are probably other ways to do this, but if you want it to look like part of the hat, this seems like the way to go.

Lastly, you could add the little braided cord down from the earflap, but I thought there might be too much going on with that. If you leave off the bear ears, I would definitely add the cord.

Baby B's Flame Chevron Blanket

I've finally finished this Flame Chavron blanket I started in June for little Baby B. The lace pattern creates a really cool flow and is easy to learn once you get going. I think it's just the needle size that makes it take awhile.


FINAL SIZE: 34" long x 24" wide
YARN: Linea Pura, Lana Grossa, Organic Soy, Cotton and Bamboo
AMOUNT: Approx 4 balls (they are 50g, 110m each)
NEEDLES: US 8


CO 95 sts (pattern is worked over a multiple of 7 sts + 4, + 14 sts for border)

Start by knitting 10 rows of Seed Stitch (K1, P1)

(K1, P1) for 7 sts, place marker. Follow chart below for Row 1. Place marker, (K1, P1) for 7 sts.

Only RS rows are shown on the chart. When working WS rows, P all sts.

Continue to follow the chart starting and ending each row with 7 sts of Seed Stitch for border.

I followed this complete chart a total of 7 times. Once you finish the last row, Seed Stitch (K1, P1) for 10 rows, BO and weave in ends.

Make sure to block the finished blanket to open up the lace pattern.

TIP: Only the red section repeats which I couldn't see very well in my printout on my first row. Make sure you highlight that somehow if you print out the chart to carry with you. The chart can be found here.


Thanks to Barbara G. Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns and Laura Chau at Knitty

Linda's Baby Kit

This cute little baby kit was made by my mother-in-law, Linda for an upcoming raffle. She did an amazing job, especially after not having knit for many, many years.

For the blanket she followed the diagonal garter stitch blanket pattern on this blog by pulling from two balls of yarn on size 11 needles.

She embellished the other pieces with some crochet and found the two patterns on Knitting Pattern Central.

Click here for the hat.
And here for the cute little booties.

I think I'm going to have to try and make these as well!

Snowball the Alpaca

Meet Snowball. The cutest Alpaca in Maine, at least she looks like she would be. I haven't gotten to see her in person, but when my parents took a trip up to Maine from Boston last month they happened to pass by Winters Gone alpaca farm and store. Knowing of my yarn and knitting addiction, they decided to stop in and pick up a couple of skeins for me (nice!).

This farm is neat in the way that each yarn is labeled so you know exactly which alpaca your yarn came from and it is all the original animal's coloring. The yarn is so incredibly soft, I can't wait to knit something with it! Thanks mom!


Winters Gone | Bath, Maine | 800.445.2404

Ribbed Baby Hat

To match the ribbed baby jacket I made, I thought this ribbed hat would go perfectly.

CO 48 sts on 16" size 8 circular needles
Join in the round, careful not to twist sts
*K2, P2* around and around until the work measures 4.75"-5"
If you want to fold the hat up at the bottom and have a little cuff, make it even longer.
*K2, P2TOG*
*K2, P1*
*K2TOG, P1*
*K1, P1*
*K2TOG*
Pull yarn through remaining 12sts and pull tight.
Weave in loose ends.

Baby Julia Sweetie Pie

For baby Julia I decided to make the Sweetie Pie Kit (minus leggings) from the Pickles website. I used Rowan pure cotton in three colors. The thing is, something is very amiss with this pattern that I never could really figure out.

The little dress and hat is so very cute, but be warned if you attempt this pattern! I tore it out 3-4 times before I remembered I could use a "life-line" to hold my spot just before I got to the problem area of casting-off for the sleeve holes.

In order to use a life-line, simply take a sewing needle and some contrasting yarn (preferably thin) and carefully thread it through every stitch you are working. Continue knitting as normal and hopefully you don't need to use it. If you do, just take the work off the knitting needles and pull out all of the stitches until you get to the contrast yarn. It will not allow you to pull out those stitches, so you just pick up all the stitches with your knitting needles again. As you continue to work on a project, you may want to add a new life-line every few inches so you don't have to pull out so much of the piece if you mess up later.


Here is the link if you want to give it a go:
http://www.pickles.no/sweetie-pie-kit/

Good luck!

Baby Billy Kamanaolana

This cute little set just went out in the mail today, destined for beautiful O'ahu and undoubtedly a beautiful new baby boy! Hope the mom-to-be enjoys her knit kit.

How to Sew a Button on Knits

This seems simple, but sewing a button onto something made of yarn can be much trickier than just a regular piece of fabric. Here is a step-by-step guide...

Start with threading decent size needle and doubling up the thread. Tie an overhand knot at the end of both threads together. Now you have a double-thick piece of thread through the needle you will be sewing with.

1
Decide where you need to have the button align and then on which stitch you want to attach the thread.

2
Bring the needle under the knit stitch, but only pull it through halfway. Then take the needle through the loop sticking out at the end, where your knot is from tying the thread together. This attaches the thread to the yarn before you add the button.



3
Thread the button hole and align the button where it needs to be. Sew the button on as normal, around and around through the holes.


4
When you've done this 10 times or so and it feels secure, bring the needle down through one button hole, but NOT through the knit. Your needle will pop out in the space between the button and the knit item.



5
Wrap thread around and around the base of the button 4-6 times (depending on how much thread you have left) and thread needle through all of the rounds you made into the knit item.


6
Knot the thread as usual on the back side of the knit (similar to how you attached the yarn in step 1) 2-3 times.

Done!

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Enjoy this Day

TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN,
YET THE YOUNGEST YOU'LL EVER BE,
SO ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTS.

Cutie Baby Kit [ Hat + Socks ]

This soft gray yarn was so great to work with that I made a baby jacket (coming soon) my first pair of socks and a beanie hat.

I used about three 50g balls of Classic Yarns "Cashsoft DK" in a cool gray color for all the items, or about 430 yards.


Hat

CO 72 sts on size 5 circular needles.
Join the work in the round, careful not to twist the stitches.
Start with a rib pattern: *K2, p2* until work is about 2"
Then start to K all sts until work measures 5"

Start to decrease:
Row 1: *K6, K2tog* 9 times
Row 2: *K5, K2tog*
Row 3: *K4, K2tog*
Row 4: *K3, K2 tog*
Row 5: *K2, K2tog*
Row 6: *K1, K2og*
Thread needle through remaining stitches and pull tight.
Weave in loose ends.

The fun part is adding on the two buttons (even though they do not serve a purpose aside from looking cute) which I just happened to have and matched the gray color. I think sewing on a tiny bow would also be really cute if it were for a girl.



Baby Socks

These socks were knit on two needles and then seamed up the back in one long seam when finished. SO much easier than trying to deal with DPNs! This pattern is based on one that I had found, but is changed enough to be different. It should fit 6-12 months (?), but really I have not tried them on any babies, so am not 100% sure.

Keep in mind that after the ribbing section, the whole thing is worked in stockinette stitch so you need to make sure you alternate your knit and purl rows accordingly.

Abbreviations:
st(s): Stitch(es)
K: Knit
P: Purl
st st: Stockinette stitch
K2tog: Knit 2 sts together in order to decrease 1 st.
P2tog: Purl 2 sts together in order to decrease 1 st.
skpo: slip 1 stitch as if to knit, knit 1 stitch, pass the slipped stitich over the knit stitch. This will decrease 1 stitch.
turn: Instead of completing the row as normal, stop after the designated stitches and flip the work over to work only this section.


With size 5 needles, CO 36 sts

Work a rib pattern *K1, P1* for 6 rows
Row 7: K all
Row 8: P all
Row 9: K5, K2tog, K to last 7 sts, skpo, K5
Row 10: P all
Row 11: K5, K2tog, K to last 7 sts, skpo, K5
Row 12: P all
Row 13: K5, K2tog, K to last 7 sts, skpo, K5
Row 14: P all
Row 15: K4, K2tog, K to last 6 sts, skpo, K4
This leaves 28 sts

Row 16: P all
Row 17: K all
Row 18: P all
Row 19: K all

Shape heel:
Next Row: P8 sts ONLY, then turn.
Work these 8 sts ONLY in st st for 9 rows.

Then, making sure you're on the wrong side:
Next Row: P2, P2tog, P1, turn
Next Row: Sl 1, K3
Next Row: P3, P2tog, P1, turn
Next Row: Sl 1, K4
Next Row: P4, P2tog

Break (really, just cut it with a tail left to weave in later) and leave those 5 sts on a stitch holder.

Now with the wrong side facing, slip the center 12 sts onto a stitch holder, rejoin the yarn to the remaining 8 sts and P to the end.
Work 8 rows in st st on these 8 sts ONLY

Next Row: K2, skpo, K1, turn
Next Row: Sl 1, P3
Next Row: K3, skpo, K1, turn
Next Row: Sl 1, P4
Next Row: K4, skpo, turn
Next Row: Sl 1, P4

Shape instep:
K5, pick up and K8 sts evenly along inside edge of heel, K12 sts from stitch holder, pick up and K8 sts evenly along inside edge of heel, and K5 from stitch holder.
38 sts total

Next Row: P all
Next Row: K11, K2tog, K12, skpo, K11
Next Row: P all
Next Row: K10, K2tog, K12, skpo, K10
Next Row: P all
Next Row: K9, K2tog, K12, skpo, K9
Next Row: P all
Next Row: K8, K2tog, K12, skpo, K8
30 sts total

Work 13 more rows in st st

Shape toe:
Next Row: K1, [skpo, K5] 4 times, K1
Next Row: P all
Next Row: K1, [skpo, K4] 4 times, K1
Next Row: P all
Next Row: K1, [skpo, K3] 4 times, K1
Next Row: P all
Next Row: K1, [skpo, K2] 4 times, K1

[P2tog] 7 times

Thread needle through remaining stitches and pull tight.
Use the mattress stitch to sew up the back for the seam.
Repeat for other sock.

Mock Honeycomb Baby Hat

Yep, it's been awhile. But I'm back knitting up a storm...


This is a fun little baby hat to make in the round. I made mine too small, but have adjusted the pattern below to be a more realistic baby size. To fit ages approx. 0-3 months (6+ months).

Needles: US #8, circular and dpn, or two circular
Malabrigo, Pure Merino Wool
Less than half the ball (ball total is 216 yards)

Abbreviations:
st(s): Stitch(es)
K: Knit
P: Purl
M1: Make one st by knitting the stitch, then knitting it again before dropping it from your needle.
Sl: Slip the stitch
wyif: With yarn in front (as if to purl)

With 16" circular needles, cast on 64(72) sts
Join in the round, careful not to twist sts
K2, P2 until the piece measures 2"

M1 st
Now you have 65(73) sts

Begin mock honeycomb pattern:
(Multiple of 4 + 1)
Rows 1, 3 and 5: Knit all
Rows 2 and 4: k1, *sl 3 wyif, k1; rep from *
Row 6: k2, *insert needle under all the slipped stitch strands below and knit the next st bringing the strands over and off the right needle, k3; rep from *, end last rep k2
Rows 7, 9 and 11: Knit all
Rows 8 and 10: k3, *sl 3 wyif, k1; rep from *, end k2
Row 12: k4, *insert needle under all the slipped stitch strands below and knit the next st bringing the strands over and off the right needle, k3; rep from *, end k1 Rep Rows 1-12

Once the work measures 5.5" start to decrease starting on row 1 or 7:
Row 1: K2tog, K all 64(72) sts
Row 2: *K6, K2tog* 8(9) times
Row 2: *K5, K2tog*
Row 3: *K4, K2tog*
Row 4: *K3, K2 tog*
Row 5: *K2, K2tog*
Row 6: *K1, K2og*
Thread needle through remaining 8 stitches and pull tight.
Weave in loose ends.

If you knit this pattern, will you please let me know how the size turned out? Mine was very small when I CO 56 sts, but I want to make sure the larger sizes are appropriate. Thanks!