Friday, May 27, 2016

What's this? A hat for another pal!



Buddy Nueve loves his What's This? hat we made him for the holidays.  It seems only appropriate that Buddy Ocho, which is about 6 months younger than Lucky, should get one, too.   Buddy Ocho lives in California but is visiting us in December so this is a gift that could help her out in facing a cold Massachusetts winter.*


*At the time of starting this project it is the beginning of December and currently 50 degrees F outside.  I was hangning out in my yard wearing only a tshirt.  Then again, I am over 7 months pregnant and am running super warm right now!
For this hat, I selected a yarn that I spun while Lucky was a newborn. This wool/silk blend should be super warm and I designed this pattern specifically to showcase handspun yarns.  Like the original What's This? hat,  this yarn is 10 WPI.  I also have 100 yards of it which should be plenty to create another version of the hat.  Unlike the What's This? Hat I made for Buddy Nueve and the original design, this yarn is not single ply.   This is a N-ply yarn but I think that the hat should still have plenty of character.

I had some pink handspun yarns in my stash that I would have loved to use for this hat, but they were all a little too thick and I didn't want to have to modify the pattern a lot of make a hat to fit Buddy Ocho.  Plus, Ocho's parents love the color green and they are expecting their second baby this spring (who should be born by the time this post is published!)  This hat should work for the new baby in addition to big sister, and I like things that can be reused.

When it was time to wind the yarn, I ran into the issue I've been having in my knitting studio since I set it up.  Since I first showed it to you guys, I've added a sewing table.  Unfortunately the sewing table, my writing desk and my Expedit bookcase are all too thick to set up the swift and winder!  Thankfully the swift fits well on a folding TV table but I don't wan this to ever become a permanent addition to my knitting studio.  We'll have to figure out a solution at a later date.



The horror! My size 5 needle tips are missing!  (the 6's are accounted for in a sweater for Lucky.)   Most annoying is that I have some size 5 shorties in the mail coming my way, but I don't have much time to wait to start working on this projects so I'm going to have to use DPN's.  I'm sure they will turn up eventually, probably in the folds of my couch where I most often knit.  Or else I hid them from Lucky and did too good of a job so I can't find them.  ARGH!  It is a Saturday night and my shorties aren't scheduled to arrive until WEDNESDAY!


I'm a bad girl and didn't check my gauge but trusted that the sizing would be fine.  Comparing this ribbed portion to Lucky's hat it matches up well, so I think I'm safe with the sizing.  (Of course, I have no information on Buddy Ocho's head size but with a younger sib on the way if it is too small it will fit another member of that family.)

Normally I'd keep details for the number of rows I knit in each section, but since this is a handspun vs commercial yarn the slight differences to the original design don't matter as much for helping someone else out.  This is why I included lengths for each section in the pattern.


I finished the base of the hat with about 2 yards or so to spare.  This is unfortunately not enough to make an entire bobble, so I'm going to add some of the tan and maroon from Buddy Nueve's hat into this hat for buddy Ocho.


The base hat is a little large for 26 month old Lucky, but that just means that it should last a second winter for Buddy Ocho.  



Since I had limited green yarn left, I made three chains of the bobble and then made the rest out of the same maroon I used for Buddy Nueve's hat.


The final hat is a little large, but it should fit Buddy Ocho for this winter and next.  This is great if she already comes to Boston with a winter hat then there is something they have that she can grow into (or use as a backup should the other hat get lost.) I'm so glad to be able to give something to one of my favorite toddler girls!