I have been knitted quite a few hats recently. The first was knitted before Christmas for Mark using the fabulous ‘A Hat Fit For A Boyfriend’ by Stephanie Nicole. I’ve blogged about this pattern before but I can’t recommend it enough because the decreases are really neat and it’s free!
The second hat pattern I’ve been knitting furiously is the ‘Swirl Hat’ by Mandie Harrington. If you’re making it for a newborn it uses tiny amounts of 4-ply, which is great if you have leftover supersoft sock wool.
It’s a great pattern, really easy to memorise, and super stretchy. I’ve knitted three (one of which is modeled here by the monkey Kimberly crocheted for the baby). Two of these are gifts for people in the UK that are due to have babies around the same time as me.
It seems a little bit long to me, but I don’t have access to a baby to check on…so we shall see.
And the final pattern I’ve knitted is the ‘Vine Lace Baby Hat’, which isn’t easy to memorise, and in fact drove me mad. I love how it looks now it’s finished, but it does seem incredibly small so I don’t know if it’ll actually fit a real life newborn.
If I were to knit this pattern again (and to be honest it’s a pretty big if, because I restarted it three times, and ripped it back countless times) I would knit the 3-6 months old size – to make all the hassle worthwhile you’d want this to be worn more than once, which isn’t what happens with most newborn stuff.
One piece of advice on this one – consider using lifelines if you’re going to try and watch reruns of Downton Abbey when knitting it – it would have saved me an awful lot of hassle.
Ruffles & Ribbons 