Newborn Viking Hat

Wonder of wonders, I'm posting the latest hat to leave my needles... if only because it had to be wrapped up to go to a baby shower yesterday. Nevertheless, I shall celebrate-- huzzah!


It's a simplified and scaled-down version of my Baby Viking Hat, which looks comparatively gargantuan:

Project Notes

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Worsted-- which happens to be one of my least favorite yarns. I have quite a bit left over from a baby blanket, and out of some perverse sense of duty, I have been knitting my way through it-- this didn't even use up one skein. Sigh.

Pattern: My own-- still unpublished. Someday, I promise.

Modifications: I made the horns smaller and omitted the earflaps-- newborn Vikings lacking the manual dexterity to yank off their helmets. I also substituted garter stitch for the fancier stitch patterns used in the original version-- I didn't think they would read well in a smaller format.

Etc: The hat was a hit with the mother-to-be-- parents, it seems, like to think of their children as bloodthirsty marauders. I can't wait to see it on the little guy, who should be arriving any day now!

Turn a Square... squared!

Let us, for a moment, return to August-- which, for me, was Beanie Month. I'd like to share a prime specimen of that noble species, knitted in August-- and photographed on a late September day that felt much like August. I'd like to thank the weather participating in this time-travel experiment.

Exhibit A:


But wait, there's more:


Notice anything different? I started running out of dark brown yarn toward the end of the second hat, so the Noro stripes gradually got wider... Let's get a side view:


And head-on:

There's a face that says: "It's 85 degrees, can I take this wool thing off my head now?"


Project Notes

Yarn: One skein Noro Silk Garden, almost one skein Berroco Ultra Alpaca-- and after two hats, there's very little left of either. I've never worked with Noro before, and I think I'm in love.

Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood-- and whilst collecting the link, I noticed that I worked the decreases incorrectly. D'oh.

Etc: Thank God for beanies-- they saved this project from utter ruin. I still have a moderately alarming backlog of hats to share, but by my unofficial count I have a mere 11 hats left to knit!

Baby Viking Hat

Dun

DUN

DUN....

DAH DAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

RAWR!!!

Project Notes

Yarn: Cascade 128-- rustic and sheepy, but still soft enough for a Baby Viking's tender noggin. The horns are Lamb's Pride Worsted.

Pattern: My own! Designing this hat was probably the most fun I've had so far during this project. Eventually I'll write it up...

Techniques: I figured out pretty early on that I would have to use short rows for the horns, which scared me a bit. I've blindly followed pattern instructions for short rows before and had good results, but I'm amazed by how much better I understand the concept after just messing around for a while. After the first couple of botched attempts, something clicked-- the next horn was perfect.

The Bottom Line: This came out almost exactly as I envisioned-- no small victory, if I do say so myself. It also fits perfectly, and looks cuter than I thought possible on its new owner:

He looks ready to pillage a Labor Day picnic, don't you think?