AuburnChick's Adventures

Do you remember the baby hats and capris I recently made for a sweet friend of Chicky’s?  She’s got her own little photography business going, and she texted me last week to ask if I could make another hat for her.  She’s getting good at finding patterns.

I sent her out to the store to find the yarn she wanted, and she dropped it off in the wee hours of Friday morning.

I just got around to casting on after spending a couple of days recuperating from my trip to Lakeland.

The pattern is called Baby Bear Hat, and it is free!  You can find it here.

First, the yarn…

Lion Brand Heartland – Sequoia colorway

The picture does not do the yarn justice.  It is a deep brown with flecks of lighter brown.  It’s beautiful and very soft, although as is typical of acrylic yarn, it did not slide that easily through my fingers.  Still, it wasn’t bad to knit with.  The project only required a scant 20 grams of yarn!

I made the newborn size on size 9 needles, despite everyone else who’s knit this using a size 10.5.  My knitting is loose, and the yarn label recommended size 9 needles.  I’d talked to Amber, and she had mentioned that my other hats could have been a tad smaller.  She wasn’t criticizing; I had asked her for honest feedback.  I figured with smaller needles and, thus, a tighter gauge, the size would be better.

I followed the pattern until the decreases.  I always read others’ project notes and had decided, since I do not like to seam, to knit the ears directly onto the hat.  I marked the first stitch on the first decrease round, knit the next eighteen stitches (decreasing according to the pattern), and marked the next stitch.  Then, I finished the round.

I finished knitting the hat according to the instructions and bound off.

To make the ears, I picked up six stitches beginning with the stitch below the one I had marked.  I’d run out of stitches to pick up the first time I tried by starting at the marked stitch and started picking up all over again.

I completed the ears as instructed except for the first decrease on row 4.  I did as someone suggested and knit a SSK, which made that side lean the right way (if you’re a knitting or crocheter, you understand how important this is when shaping).

The result is an adorable little hat!  I cannot wait to see it on Amber’s client!

Filed under: Knitting | Tagged: baby, baby bear hat, Knitting, Lion Brand Heartland |