Little Sprout hat

It always feels like an accomplished sort of weekend when you publish something – not a poem this time, but a knitting pattern. Five of my coworkers have babies now (well, four do and one is working on it); the oldest is just over a year and I’ve clearly been slacking in the baby knitting department. Having just finished my Primrose Path sleeveless sweater (now blocking for the second time, in hopes I can get it a little smaller as it stretched out to become not only loose but see-through the first time. grr) this seemed like a good time to embark on a blitz of knitting quick and tiny things.

The first hat was going to be the Umbilical Cord Hat from Deb Stoller’s first Stitch ‘N Bitch book (like these), but first I had to change the number of stitches cast on to account for the yarn I wanted to use, and then I had to change the decrease pattern since I had fewer rows per inch … and then I was working on the i-cord at the top when the green color spoke up and insisted it wanted a leaf rather than a top-knot. With so many changes in such a basic hat, I decided it probably constituted a new pattern, wrote it up and published it as a free Ravelry download. I’ve called it the Little Sprout hat.

Now I’m halfway done a lace hat in a rich fuschia color, for a year-old baby girl whose parents seem to like extremely girly clothes for her. Then I have to make something for a boy and a girl who are each a little over a month old, then something for the one still in utero. I haven’t decided whether all of these will be hats or if I’ll branch out into eensy socks – I have lots of washable sock yarn leftovers, but I’m never quite sure about wool for babies. Still, a lot of it is not itchy stuff. I also have leftover mercerized cotton from a multicolor baby blanket, and I’m thinking maybe I’ll make a sort of jester hat for one of them – square floppy corners, maybe short little tassels.