Hi all! It’s been a looooong time no see… Well here I am back, with a bunch of unblogged subjects. I find it most convenient to share my latest works, which would be baby items for a little boy who is due at the end of this month. I found it hard to choose a gift for him because I wanted it to be a knitted one, and since he’s going to be a summer baby, my options were limited. You see, the baby items I find the cutest are mostly made of bulky yarn, like these little booties I made earlier for someone else’s baby:
Chaussons Mignons by Pruline
The summers are really warm and long here, especially the last few. Knitted tops, vests, jackets and such aren’t needed, not even if they are made from fingering weight cotton (and I am unwilling to knit with any lighter weight cotton). I have no time to make a little blanket, although that would be nice and I would love to do that. Maybe later.
After browsing patterns for months, and learning that newborns need hats even in summertime (as they are unable to maintain body temperature), I decided to make two hats accompanied by matching baby booties suitable for someone who just entered this world. But I liked Chaussons Mignons too much to let it go, so I reached for my calculator and modified the pattern in order to make some from fingering and heavy DK yarn. The result:
I’m happy with what I got, but I must say that I still think the bulky one is cuter. Since it’s a very simple pattern, it wasn’t hard to make the modification. In fact, I spent more time thinking what color to go with. It’s so much easier to knit for baby girls! You can read the details on my projet pages, both for the Fingering weight and the Heavy DK weight Chaussons
For the hats I have chosen two wonderful patterns, the Swirl Hat by Mandie Harrington and the Otis Baby Hat by Joy Boath
I can sincerely recommend both. For the Swirl Hat I followed the instructions for the 4 – 12 month size, used slightly bigger needle and tried to keep my gauge relaxed (knowing that I’m a tight-knitter, especially when knitting with dpns). Ended up with a tiny newborn size 🙂 The pattern is amaizing, well written with very clear instructions and a perfect crown shaping. I’m very picky when it comes to decreases, but in this case I can only applaud the designer, the shaping is perfect and the pattern isn’t ruined either. The pattern is very easy to memorize and can be made in any size/with any yarn weight, by adjusting the number of stitches (it has to be multiple of 8). Great project for keeping yourself entertained while traveling or commuting.
For the Otis Baby Hat I can say pretty much the same; it’s beautiful and easy with perfect decreases. Once again I used a size larger needles, and the yarn (in my opinion) is at least heavy DK, if not worsted. Of course I got a newborn sized hat…
Let me show you the decreases on these hats, from different angle:
You see why I am gushing about it?
The third hat I made (oh yes, there’s one more) is an improvisation that turned out well, it’s a basic blue cotton hat with a something little extra. It’s bigger than the other two and hopefully will fit the baby’s head during autumn.
I hope that the parents and the baby will like my gift.
Cheers,
Mimi
mimilikestomakeprettystuff 