Stalking the wild robin

Since we survived going outside yesterday, V. and I tried it again today. After all, there are errands to run, and snow to eat. (You can guess which one of us was doing which. Or at least, I hope you can.)

Right away we ran into a slew of robins who were very busy picking through some recently thawed lawn. Today was in the twenties for the most part, so you can understand their enthusiasm.

Unrequited love.

V. is unconvinced that wild birds will not come and feed out of her hand like park squirrels, even though her margin of success with squirrels is in the 1% range. 1% fed, therefore it's a fact that all those other 99% might feed, too, if she just keeps at it. Such is the probability calculations of a four year old. Perhaps they would even like to be pet?

V. and the robin discussing their boundary issues.

The robins were hungry enough that they really didn't want to do much more than hop out of arm's reach. They may have been in much more peril if V. hadn't have been so encumbered with winter clothes, but they'll find that out for themselves in the spring.

The hat that V. was running around in today (and which oddly enough matched the robins) was a UFO I found this morning in my box of UFO's. (Yes, there's a BOX.) Originally, it was just a simple Malabrigo yarn beanie, but then my philosophy on children's hats evolved and I added a kind of earflap/scarf hybrid. All that was left to do this morning was finish binding the scarf off and weaving in ends. I rather like it, and I may work up a pattern very similar to it.

I was very glad to have it, because V. seems to be as much of a Weather Wimp as I am. Any time either of us had our mittens off, we were kind of freaking out, and half way through errands she was ready to be carried home. Just like yesterday, she had to be bribed with hot cocoa.

Ok, we both had to be bribed. Is this the face of someone enjoying an outing?

Note the bold use of orange.

On the bright side, I found a weird little shelf in somebody's recycling while we were out.

The snow was free, too.

I find all sorts of things while out walking about, and I probably should show more of them. But in the meantime, this shelf will make a nice little project. I'm going to sand and paint it, then hang it like a little curio cabinet. I've had my eye out for something like this for quite some time, so my enthusiasm level is pretty high. Especially since it's small enough to be an indoor project.

Fair Isle-ish

I have been doing some Fair Isle type knitting lately. It seems the economical thing to do. The mileage for using fingering weight yarn is so much more than worsted or bulky. Think about it. How many more yards per ounce is that? A lot. Avid sock knitters will tell you - for about $10 or $15 dollars, you can get enough reasonable quality fingering weight yarn to knit a pair of socks that will take you as much work and as long as a $40 minimum sweater. That's more bang for your buck. If you're into that sort of thing. I am. Witness below.

I firmly believe kids should tie on their hats.

I whipped out my Fair Isle book and started playing around with patterns to make hats. The above hat fits a 2 to 3 year old. It wasn't the size I was aiming for, but I'm taking that in stride since it turned out rather nice anyways, and yes, I did just think I'd simply start another one. There was plenty of left over yarn and, evidently, patience. Or stubbornness. I always get those confused.

View of the top. It was a simply solution that I soon expanded upon since it struck me as not being fiddly enough for my tastes. The tams in my reference book have stars, and it just so happened that I had recently scored an authentic Shetland tam at the thrift store for about $1 (it needed some mending, which will happen once I can match the yarn somewhat) that I could copy the idea of.

 

This beanie came out the size I intended at a CO of 180 sts. As you can see, I have a lot of fingering weight yarn in various colors. The funniest thing about most of the yarn I used is that I got it at thrift stores. Ever see those little cylinders of wool baby yarn that Grandma used? Well, I snatch it all up every chance I get. I have an overabundance of pink, and that's my least favorite color - I have been too insecure in my masculinity for many years to wear pink - but that just makes it a challenge, like neon orange yarn. (A subject I will be addressing soon!)

 

I'm rather happy with this star crown. I frankly had no idea this hat was so colorful when I was knitting it; it was just working on the principle of picking a dominant group of colors and then throwing in one or two contrasts, and having half of the total colors be dark and half light. That way I could alternate almost randomly between background and foreground colors and always have a contrast, in theory. (I was limited by the colors on hand.) It sounds peculiar when I explain it but that was the methodology behind the madness.

  

Here we have the mock-up of the Shetland tam I got for a steal at the thrift store. I decided to not be too proud to learn from example and did my best to replicate. The colors are very different, since the original is sort of an aqua and salmon affair, and I also had my gauge wildly off once I got above the head band. The Shetland yarn is really more of a sport weight than light fingering like I was using. The result was that while I did learn a lot about how it was constructed, it came out as a beanie rather than a tam in shape because it had no extra roominess. It was still a spiffy beanie, though.

Detail of side pattern

I was very pleased with this star crown.The light color is some of my abundant vintage pink yarn, which contrasts nicely against hot burgundy. I actually bought the hot burgundy yarn and for the life of me, I'm not sure why. I must have had a wild hair of an idea, or it appeared differently on my computer monitor. (That's how my avocado Retro Rib cardi was born.)

There's even more of this sort of thing, which I don't consider true Fair Isle since I'm not using the "right" yarn, but they're in my workbasket. It's kind of addictive, I think. I'm considering making gloves.

Most of these hats ended up being sold in my etsy shop, which means of course that you should go check it out or drop me a note if you want me to whip one up for you.

Commissioned Baby Hat Set #3

Here is the third and final baby hat/scarf set I was commissioned to make through my etsy shop around the holidays this winter. This one is for a three year old boy.

It's 100% wool.

Close-up of hat

On all the sets, I did some hand embroidery on the scarves and hats that matched. I figured that would make them more special than just plain hand knit hats. :)

Commisoned Bay Hat Set #2

Today I:

• Stayed home from work with a sick toddler.Such is life!
• Aren't feeling so hot, myself. 

Baby Hat Set #2
This is the set of three hat/scarf sets I made via an etsy shop commission. This one is for a one year old girl, in 100% wool, with matching embroidery on the hat and scarf. I used Paton's Classic Wool.

Hat and scarf together

Close-up of hat

Close-up of scarf

The remaining hat/scarf set was for a three year old boy, and is of a slightly different style. I really liked how it turned out, so I am likely to write up a pattern for it once I do what I consider my final version. :)

Comissioned Baby Hat Sets

Today I:

• slurped a little kefir and then grabbed a coffee by work and ate the rest of V's breakfast sandwich;
• ate a cookie;
• had a pre-lunch turkey sandwich;
• am still hungry. Go figure!

Around Thanksgiving I was commissioned via my etsy shop to make three sets of baby/toddler beanie and scarves. Here is the result:

Set #1:
For a one year old girl. Yellow 100% wool beanie and scarf with hand embroidery. It was really difficult to find an economical but good 100% wool yellow yarn quickly, but a vigilant search yielded a single ply wool that is relatively soft after washing.

It really is this yellow!

Hand embroidered flower

Note hand embroidered flower that matches hat embroidery

Close-up

Tomorrow: Set #2.

Quickie Baby Hat

I whipped up this toddler beanie out of some Malabrigo I had in my stash as an esty item to sell:

It's just a basic worked in the round, drawn-together top beanie. I embellished it with some embroidery in another brand of single-ply knitting yarn with a leaf, since the color scheme seemed autumnal to me.

Below you can see the drawn-together top:

I'm not a big fan of drawn-together tops, but they are good for getting a general fit, rather than very specific, more tailored one. And that's kind of important with toddler heads. :P

I've been thinking a lot lately about hat sizing, and bonnet sizing. Usually, it's just head circumference and sometimes hat depth given, but how to determine hat depth was always a puzzler for me. I think I may have finally figured it out: measure from ear to ear (either below ear, or whatnot, depending on the intended fit) and then divide by 2, and consider ease. Bonnets are a bit trickier, I think, but I've been feeling bound and determined lately to figure out some standardized sizing chart for bonnet making.