Forest owl hat for William

Savannah loves her owl hat so much that little brother caught on and tries to steal hers whenever we need to wear hats outside. I tried to modify the pattern to knit him one in his size by decreasing to 76 cast on stitches, but it turned out to be baby sized - oops!

I used some of my leftover Malabrigo merino in Bobby blue for this one and sewed on owl eyes on only one owl. It is sitting in my stash of baby hats that I've knit, waiting for a new home. For take two, I used a skein of Malabrigo merino in Forest and cast on 88 stitches. This one turned out to be the perfect size!

I love the variegated greens in forest. William likes it so much that he hasn't taken it off. He says, "Look, Mom-mom, Willem owl hat," and points to his head. As I type this, he is sitting beside me with his owl hat on... I suppose I can call that a successful knit.

My little vampire with his new forest green owl hat.

I'd like to sew on some button eyes eventually but I think I'll have to wait until he's sleeping so I can get him to part with his new hat. Now the kids want me to knit an owl hat for myself!

Beret for tea leaves

After knitting Savannah's tea leaves sweater, I had enough yarn leftover to make something else. Since Savannah already has a favorite winter hat, I wanted to make her a beret. She's young enough to get away with wearing a beret and I think the colors look great against her shiny blonde hair.

This simple pattern is available for free on www.ravelry.com by Amy Rose, called the Adah beret. I knit it in the same yarn as her sweater, my favorite Malabrigo merino. I hope she'll wear it this winter on occasion with when her favorite owl hat, but it's pretty hard to get her to wear anything else on her head.

Aviatrix hats

Suddenly everyone I know seems to be pregnant. We know of seven babies that we expect to meet sometime in October, November and December of this year. One of the hats I wished I had had when my babes were small, is the Aviatrix. It is soft and stretchy, warm and has a chin strap to keep it on baby's lolling head.

The button can also be adjusted (I'm supposed to add a second button one inch higher than the first, but haven't yet). Here's the first hat I knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted Indigo. It is so soft and the picture doesn't do justice to how cute these look wrapped around a pair of chubby cherub cheeks.

One wasn't enough with so many winter babies on the way, so I knit a second one too, in the same yarn but with Emerald colorway. This pattern is easy but not boring and perfect using up scrap yarn since it needs less than a skein and probably less than half a skein of yarn. I plan to make a few more in girly colors and as the new babies join us, I'll bring my stash of baby hats and let the mama pick one.

Silly hats

I have yarn in my stash that needs to get used up (call it spring cleaning). I started knitting hats to get rid of the extra bits of yarn. I'm not in love with them but they're soft and they'll do.

William models his new silly hat. This Marley pattern is from Susan Anderson's Itty-Bitty Hats book. I'm not crazy about the colors, but so be it, it's a stash hat. The important thing is that it fits him well and is soft and warm.

Here's the side view with the silly topper, which I kind of like. There's only so much time in childhood to get away with things like this.

Here's the second stash busting hat, which actually fits me too. I used up three small balls of yarn with this one including sock yarn, which makes the variegated pattern.

I didn't follow a pattern, I just started knitting, then seaming, then added the ear flaps and made the I-cord and tassels. My exact pattern is on ravelry, although there are better examples of thorpes and jester hats to follow.

I'm trying to be a better knitter - that is not in skill but in habit. I'm trying to diminish my stash to one basket worth of yarn (currently I have four) because I can't use four baskets worth all at once anyway and I'd rather have an excuse to visit my local yarn shop with an organized mind and yarn supply. Happy spring cleaning to you too!

Owl lover's hat

My daughter is currently enamored with Kathryn Lasky's Ga'Hoole series, the one about the owls with the new movie out. So I couldn't resist making her an owl hat with my leftover Malabrigo merino yarn. Since blue is her favorite color, it worked out well.

The moment I completed weaving in the loose threads, she donned her hat while reading book eight in the series. I think it's really cute on her.

The free pattern for this hat is available by knitculture here. There's also an adult version. I highly recommend the pattern - it was well written and a fast knit that lent itself well to the Malabrigo yarn. Not to mention, it's just perfect for a kid enamored by the Ga'Hoole series.

Savannah picked out the buttons we sewed on for eyes. I'm still debating whether or not to sew a tiny orange beak and feet on one of the owls....

William's Toasty Topper

With a small amount of time here and there, I love a good quick knit. William has already outgrown the hat I knit for him last year so when I saw the Toasty Topper pattern by Alexis Riggs, I couldn't resist. I had been thinking of knitting something similar last year for him but wasn't sure how to connect the scarf to the hat. We have days here where the wind blows so cold and hard that any crevice exposed to the weather, usually wrists, ankles and necks, will get so chilled you have to return home.

This hat is the perfect solution to the wind chill/exposed to the weather parts problem since the scarf is attached to the hat and provides total coverage in the back of the neck.

William wore his outside today to play and eat the late raspberries that have come in better than the earlier crop. I knit it with Lion Brand Wool-ease, thick and quick. Admittedly, I didn't look at the pattern, but I followed the picture fairly closely, making my scarf slightly longer than the 24" called for in the pattern because rather than knit it in double ribbing, which is very stretchy, I opted for seed stitch for this one.

If I had to make the hat over again, I would make the scarf connect further around the hat band to better cover his ears. (You'll see that the original pattern does have this feature - I should've followed it!) I may add ear flaps that simply hang down for that purpose to improve this one.

Now Savannah wants one in raspberry or cilantro (William's is in Denim blue), and I can't wait to make her one!