Behind the Design of the Cloudy Rainbow Hat

My cloudy rainbow hat design is a really simple pattern.  You knit a tube and then graft the top together with the kitchener stitch. I even provided some tips on how to resize this hat to fit any sized head.  It took me some trial and error to get the right shape for Rowdy's head, and I sort of made up the design as I went along.  Today I'm going to share some of these notes as I was designing this hat PLUS take the opportunity to share more adorable pictures of Rowdy.

Why was there trial and error?  I knew that I only had 22 yards of my handspun chunky yarn and that that was probably not enough yardage to make a hat for a 9 month old baby.  I knew that I needed to push the design as far as I could to get something that would fit him.

I really like the "cloud" that ended up on top of the hat, even if that was not part of my original vision when I started spinning.

I started by casting on 33 stitches, but I quickly realized that this was going to be pretty big on Rowdy's 8.5 month old head.  Since I was only a few inches into the hat and already on the green yarn, there was NO way that I could create an entire baby hat.

I started over with 27 stitches.  This fit with negative ease (and likely wouldn't last very long), but I got almost to the top of his crown by the time I ran out of yarn in my chunky gradient.  

You may note that the pattern itself starts with 28 stitches.  I did this because I really wish I had used 28 stitches and it is easier to write insturctions for grafting an even number of stitches than an odd number of stitches.

So what was I going to do about my yarn shortage?  I had some thinner (worsted weight) yarn with the same colors that I had intended to use all along for the pompoms.  What would happen if I held this double with some white Tuff Puff to finish up the top of my hat?

And this is how I got the cloud on top of my rainbow.

Before I started knitting, I considered doing vertical stripes with a K1B technique but I REALLY REALLY wanted to show off this true gradient without breaking it up.

There was only 11.5 g left of the worsted weight before starting the pompoms.  I really wanted to make sure there is enough for 2, so I wound the yarn with care and kept my fingers crossed.

Each one a red-red colorway when winding.  Woot!

It would have been nice to have denser pompoms, but I knew that these were going to be super cute.  

I mean, look how cute they are before they even made it on to the hat!  

So there you have it!  With a little trial and error (well, a few errors), I ended up with a hat that I designed from dyeing the fiber, spinning the yarn and the knitting the hat.  

I know that I've done a good job when people I pass on the street start grinning at me.  

How can you not grin when you see this little hat?  I suppose the baby is pretty cute, too.  😉

Attempting to Create a Panda PomPom

I was looking through Chiyo915's PomPom All Stars and I saw a cute little panda bear.  What is crazy is that the ears of this panda are longer than the rest of the pompom.  I wanted to try to recreate this myself, which would be a bit of a challenge since there was no diagram.  Let's see if I can make my own type of diagram.  I was successful with the pompom watermelon, after all.  How hard could this be?

I sketched something out, and well, I'll give it a shot.  I wrapped around 9-12 wraps for each color section.

 

And then it was time to cut open the pompom:

So there is definitely a face here, but I don't think that the density of the fibers is enough to create the image that I wanted to make.  Maybe I should have also started the nose lower on the face.

after some trimming the pompom is complete.  So what do you think?  Do you see a panda bear here?

 

I attempted to make another panda, lowering the nose and adding more yarn in general.  I'm not sure if I made the pompom denser.  With this low level of detail maybe I should have used the smaller pompommaker that I have, or have used thicker  yarn.  The shapes I tried to make aren't super obvious, but you can sort of manipulate the ears and nose into the shape you want.

In the end, they're pretty cute but I'm not sure if I would see a panda if I weren't the creator.  Let's see what Keith has to say on the matter.

I posted the picture of the pompoms on the ChemKnits Facebook Page to see what my followers felt they could be.  Enough people guessed Panda that I'm feeling much more confident.  Now I will just have to think about what I could possibly use these pompoms for.  I don't want to have them on the top of a hat because in addition to being upside down some of the details might get lost.  How would you use these fun pompoms?

Making a Watermelon PomPom

That's right, I made this myself!

The ravelry user Chiyo915 has created some of the most amazing pompoms I've ever seen.  Not only does she share sketches of how she made the various pompoms, but there are also some amazing step by step images.  I decided to give the watermelon pompom a try because I didn't think that I could mess it up too badly.

I selected to use Fingering weight KnitPicks Pallet yarn in white, black and colors that I hand dyed.  I picked the smaller pompom maker (35 mm) I have for my first watermelon attempt, we'll see how this goes!

I looked at the step by step pictures on the project page rather than following the wrap counts on the notes.  I think this would be important for some of the pompom animals, but it was a little much to do on something that is more of a guideline like the watermelon.

The moment of truth is here... it is time to start cutting.  

The first cuts are promising.  It looks like I'm looking into a real watermelon!

I had wrapped this so tightly that I felt like the strands were going to pop themselves off of the pompom maker.  I tied some yarn around and POOF pulled it out.  

Normally pompoms are round, but this has so many strands that it has an oval shape.  It definitely needs a haircut.  

I now have a stunning watermelon pompom.... and what should I do with it?  I'm tempted to just hang it somewhere in my house.  It is so cute that it needs a place of honor.  

Wahoo!  That was SO MUCH fun!  I hope that I can create some other creatures in the future.  Please send me your tips and favorite pattern pages.   There are some more charts on this user's project pages, but there aren't step by step wrap photos like with the watermelon.  Do you guys have any tips?  (I really want to make the pompom fox and the pompom sheep.  I'm a little nervous to give it a shot, but the worst that will happen is that I'll get a wonky pompom, right?)  

Pom-poms!

I am a huge KnitPicks customer, and I can never let a order go by under $50.  Paying for shipping is money that could otherwise have gone to yarn.  My wish list is filled with needles and odds and ends that I need for my kit but don't have an urgent need for that I can use to top off my order.  This time, I added a pompom maker to the mix, and boy was I excited to get started! 

 As a kid I had a pompom maker, but it was a little less impressive than the ones in this kit.  I have to say that I"m impressed with how easy it was to make the pompoms. 

 

I decided to explore the pompoms in all of their glory, varying as many different elements as I could.  

Two color:

 

 

Big vs Little:

 

 

Worsted vs Fingering: 

 

Two strands together: 

Three strands together 

Variegated

 

This was what I could think of while working through my remnant collection of yarns.  Are there any other variations of pompoms I should explore?  All of these were done with 100% wool, I didn't play with different fiber types or novelty yarns.... yet!  Also, what kind of projects should I make with pompoms?  I can't wait to hear your suggestions. 

I finishing all of the pompoms and then realized that there were additional instructions on the inside of the cardboard packaging. Whoops!  At least I seemed to figure it out okay.