FO: Last Minute Rainbow Beanies

What's a knitter to do when they finish all their Christmas gift knitting on time? Why... stress themselves out by starting a new project 2 days before Christmas of course! lol On December 21st, I took my kids to a local thrift store to pick out a present for each other (this worked great, by the way, because they had the fun of looking through everything and it also counted as a gift - win win), when I came across a bag with 2 skeins of this yarn along with coordinating eyelash yarn for just $2.00. Normally I would never go for this type of yarn because it just sits in my stash, but since I had finished everything else I wanted to make for the holiday, I figured I had enough time to whip out 2 bulky weight hats.

The yarn is Yarn Bee Soft Illusion and this is the LA Cool colorway. They were different dye lots, which you can tell in the finished hats, but my kids actually don't seem to notice the difference because I have yet to hear them yell, "that's MY hat!" which is great. I was able to knit up one hat each evening on the 22nd and 23rd, so I got them done without my kids seeing them. This yarn is so squishy soft. The base yarn is buttery smooth already, but then the hairy bits are even softer. 

On the 24th, I made the pom poms. I broke out my pom pom makers and made the largest size I had and I think they are a great size for 5 year olds. Making these was such a mess! Pom poms are a mess in general, but add in some eyelash yarn and woo boy. I tried to do all my cutting over a bag just to catch the inevitable threads and after that I was kind of buffing the pom pom with my hand to try and shake off the excess. I still find neon green threads around my house as my kids wear these. Anyway, this yarn is Premier Yarns Lash Lux Sequins in the Neon Green colorway, which is the perfect highlighter green and goes great with the crazy yarn from the hat. My kids watched me make the pom poms and got to help shake off the excess, but they didn't know what they were for.

I always try to make them something that they know is a present from me and not from Santa each year. I wrap these and set them near the Santa presents (our Santa does not wrap - it's liberating, you should try it) and they tore right into it this year and loved them. We don't really get much wear out of hats here in Central Florida, but they still love wearing them. I made them some Sesame Street Hats 2 years ago and they still wear those to play pretty often, so I knew these fuzzy hats would be a hit. I have 1/4 skein left of this hairy yarn all together, which will probably languish in my stash for ages, lol. But I'm glad I found this yarn just in the nick of time to make this gift. Sometimes it's fun to just make a completely ridiculous hat for your kids, you know?

And that completes my gift knitting from 2023! I have two other project that is technically a Christmas gift but I didn't make it until January and that was known and agreed upon with the recipients (It was their fault as much as mine, lol). All in all, I'm very happy with everything I managed to make this year. I'm glad that the kids were so happy with their gifts and that their quality was so nice. I guess knitting for almost 12 years has paid off. 

Summary:

Yarn: 1.75 skeins of Yarn Bee Soft Illusion in the LA Cool colorway and 0.50 skeins of Premier Yarns Lash Lux Sequins in Neon Green - $2.00

Pattern: LA Cool Hat by Leenbacon on Ravelry - Free

Notions: Thread

Time: 2 hours

FO: Ravenclaw Scarf & Hat

 

In deciding to knit hat and scarf sets for all the kids, I first started off with a pokemon one for my nephew. I used the Sentro 48 pin machine and cranked out a yellow and black version, which was mostly fine except the machine had tucked stitches no matter what I tried to avoid it. I had a heavily tucked section in the most visible area when worn and I really wasn't thrilled with it. I decided to try the second scarf on my flat bed knitting machine to compare the two - if I couldn't get the flat bed machine to do better then I would just use the pokemon one as it was. Anyway, this was what started my adventures in finally making things on my flat bed machine, lol. 

The scarf was my first project even though I finished it last. Since I was trying to make the same size as the Sentro machine, I made this 50 stitches wide - 48 stitches and then 2 stitches as seam allowance for sewing it into a tube. I like a scarf that is long enough to really wrap you up, so I made this 72 inches long. 

The yarn was a very fortuitous situation. I was planning on buying some navy blue yarn and striping this scarf myself with some gray I already had, but one day on a visit to the local library one of the lovely ladies asked me if I would like some yarn. She knows I'm an avid knitter and brought me into their classroom where they stored yarn for knitting classes and pulled out 5 trash bags and a few tubs filled with yarn and told me to take whatever I wanted. They had too much on hand and people tend to bring their own to the classes, so this was all going to go. It was mostly all acrylic, but I found 3 skeins of Red Heart Team Spirit yarn in Navy and Gray stripe. This is a self striping acrylic yarn and I immediately knew it would be perfect for my Ravenclaw project. My boyfriend's son discovered Harry Potter this past year and he saw he is a Ravenclaw, so I knew I had to facilitate this. Sometimes the universe just makes certain projects a possibility, you know?

So I made this using my 1988 Babylock knitting machine. I watched the series called Know Your Bond by Cheryl Brunette on YouTube and just knitted until it was 72 inches long. Since I didn't have to change colors, it went extremely smoothly. I think I made this in about an hour on the knitting machine. I'll admit it probably took me another 30 - 45 minutes to seam it up and then another 30 minutes to sew the patch on, but still for a plain stockinette scarf that's 72" long, I'm fine with that time frame, lol. I originally wanted to add tassels, but in the end I didn't think they were needed. I ordered 2 of these patches from Joann because they were on sale for $3.25 each and that's cheaper than I would have been able to buy the embroidery file let alone spend the hour to stitch them out myself. Work smarter, not harder, right? For the scarf, I just used a mattress stitch along the sides to sew it into a tube and I used a kitchener stitch to close up the end, then I steamed it heavily on the seams to get them to sit flatter.

Next up - the hat! I actually made this hat twice. At first, I used my own numbers for how many stitches it should be and it turned out way too big even for my head. It was good practice though and I was able to make the next one according to the numbers I got from this YouTube video. I was grateful to find this video made on the machine I was using. It was a nice walk through. When making this hat on the flat bed machine, at least 75% of the time is making the brim. You cast on every other stitch, knit a few rows, then add in all the rows and knit some more, then you go in with a latch hook tool and drop down every other row and re-knit them by hand to be knit stitches on the wrong side, giving you a ribbed brim that is already cast off when you're done. It's very much worth the time and effort, but it just feels like it takes forever in comparison to the time of the entire hat.

Once the knitting is done, you draw up the crown to cinch in and seam the back. I try to be very accurate when seaming anything striped and I think it turned out really well for this one.

I used a mattress stitch for the seam, which leaves a very small seam in the center back. It actually looks very clean inside thanks to this being machine made.

Once again I added the patch from Joann - I did sew these on even though they are iron on. The iron on always fails eventually and I want this to be easy to wash and wear for an 8 year old.

And there you have my first scarf and hat set of this Christmas :) I love how this turned out and the recipient seems to like it as well (even if the scarf was a bit large, lol). Even though I knit these first, they weren't "finished" until after everything else because I was waiting for the patches in the mail. C'est la vie, eh? They didn't arrive until 2 days after Christmas, but they were done and in the mail before the mailing cut off, so I still count that as a success.

Summary:

Yarn: 3 skeins of Red Heart Team Spirit in Navy and Gray = Free

Pattern: Scarf - None, Hat: Here - Free

Notions: 2 Ravenclaw patches - $6.50

Time: 4 hours

FO: Teddy Bear Baby & Toddler Hats

Alright, it's time to talk about Christmas gifts I knit this year. I decided in the summer that all my nieces and nephews would be getting hats and scarves this year and I originally wanted to use my Sentro knitting machines to make them - churning out gift hats and scarves was why I originally justified purchasing those things anyway. So I started out with some samples on the 22 pin and the 48 pin machines. The bigger machine would work for the older kids no problem, but the 22 pin was too small and the 48 pin was too big for the babies. Knowing a baby hat wouldn't take much time to make and also knowing that I was using my knitting machines for all the other kids, I decided what the heck and just cast on the baby hats to knit by hand on my DPNS. I wanted them to be cuter than just a plain beanie, so when I saw a baby hat with teddy bear ears it was decided. I cast on and got going.

I used my go-to hat pattern: Basic Hat by Michelle of Ooo Baby Knits, which is a free pattern and easily adapted to whatever size you want. I needed one for a boy and one for a girl, so I searched the stash and came up with some cute options.

The girl version came first and this is actually the only photo I have of it because I had to get it in the mail earlier than the others. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in the Dusty Pink colorway and made a basic beanie. Then I hunted Ravelry for free teddy bear ear hat patterns and just added the ears from Bear Ears & Face Hat by Tara Marie, which worked great. The hat itself is a bit long, but that means it can easily be folded up at the brim for now and it will grow with my niece and she can wear it for years. 

For my nephew, I know his mom wanted blue, so when I came across this cool yarn in my stash I decided to go with it. This yarn is I Love This Yarn Colors! from Hobby Lobby in the Morningstar colorway. It gradates from blue top green and has a heathery look. I bought it in 2014 because I loved the colors and then I could never figure out what to make with it. Huzzah! I love using up a long stashed yarn.

I made these hats 70 stitches wide and it turns out that actually can squeeze on my own head, so with the extra length from folding up the brim and the width being what it is, I know these hats can grow with their recipients for a few years at least, and that's always a nice feeling :)

The pink hat was my first gift I made this year before jumping head first into machine knitting and the blue one was made in the midst of the rest. This is my crop of gifts I mailed out to my nephews - just envision the pink one added in there since it was already gone when this photo was taken. This was the most complicated year of gifts I've ever made and I was so happy that I was able to get them all done in time :) Stay tuned for the deets on all these items over the next few weeks. 

Summary:

Yarn: 0.50 skeins of Lion Brand Wool Ease in Rose Heather - $1.50, 0.35 skeins of I Love This Yarn Colors in Morningstar  - $3.66

Pattern: Basic Hat by Michelle of Ooo Baby Knits - Free, Bear Ears & Face Hat by Tara Marie - Free

Time: 3 hours? Ish?

FO: Creeper Beanies

This past Christmas, I really wanted to make things for my boyfriend and his son. I had previously made his son Minecraft Animals for Christmas and his birthday, so continuing on that theme I decided to make him a creeper beanie as soon as I saw this pattern. At first I was just going to make the hat in crochet, but in my experience crochet isn't as stretchy as knitting and since I didn't know his head size, I decided to just knit a basic beanie instead.

I started out with this picture of a creeper face. The nice thing with knitting an 8 bit character is that the pixelation translates perfectly to knit stitches. I used this as a template when I added the face later. I tried for a while to find the perfect green variegated yarn, but no one near me had anything remotely close. In the end, I had this Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green leftover in my stash and decided to use that.

I used my old reliable Basic Hat pattern by Ooo Baby Knits to knit a basic adult sized beanie - I seriously have no idea how many times I've used this pattern by now. Over 10. It's a free one and so simple - I definitely recommend it :)

So I knit a plain green beanie that fit my own head knowing he could grow into it and have it for a long time that way. Then I grabbed some black super saver yarn and made the face with duplicate stitch. There was a definitely learning curve there because it's been YEARS since I did duplicate stitch, but it turned out pretty good.

I made this in the second week of December, giving it just enough time to get to North Carolina before Christmas. The recipient was very happy with his new hat, so that's all that matters :)

While I was making the first hat, my nephew saw it and requested one for himself too. I was in the Christmas spirit, I guess, because I made him one as well and finished it on Christmas afternoon before giving it to him.

Both my Minecraft enthusiasts were very happy with their new hats, so I count this as a successful gift indeed. If you ever have a simple character to make on a hat, I highly recommend doing it this way. It's quick to whip up and the pattern is free :)
 

FO: Blue Agathis

Last Christmas, I wanted to make my boyfriend a hat. I knew his favorite color was "Carolina Blue", and I didn't really have that color in my stash at the time. I had this "soft blue" and I was very unsure if it was too baby colored, but I showed him and he said he liked it (*I still think he was just being nice, and it's too light, honestly). But since I had showed him the yarn, I also offered to let him pick his pattern. He found several cabled hats he liked, so I had a selection of 3 different patterns to surprise him with the final product. It worked out great.

This is the Agathis pattern by Agata Smektala, which is a free download. I liked the texture and how the cables swap in each column, so this is what I went with. The yarn is I Love This Yarn in Soft Blue that I had leftover from the Chill Pill-ow. I really like this yarn for hats because it's so soft and durable, but it also can be thrown in the wash so I don't have to worry that the recipient will felt their hat.

It turned out great - a nice comfy size. The boyfriend said he loved it. Hopefully he actually did lol. Always the fun parts of gift making, amiright? I really did enjoy making this hat - it was a quick and satisfying pattern to knit up. Hats as gifts are just the best.

 

Christmas FO: Gray Slouchy Beanie

We have officially reached my final Christmas make! Let the trumpets sound! lol So if you're tired of seeing things that still say "Christmas", then fear not!

Earlier this year, my husband mentioned how he wanted a hat just like the one I made Marisa in January. He wanted a slouchy beanie and in charcoal gray. No problem :)

Knowing he wanted this hat, I grabbed a skein of Cloudborn Wool Worsted Twist in the Slate Heather over the summer when Craftsy had their crazy sale. So this yarn cost $3.00 and I still have some left, lol. This is the Slouch Moss Beanie pattern by Phanessa Fong, which is a free pattern online. Having made it twice now, I can vouch it's a good one :) Pretty simple.

Justin wanted it nice and slouchy, so I just kept knitting until he liked the length. This hat was one of my first Christmas project I started back on November 26th - it was even the project I worked on while I waited in the Avatar ride line at Animal Kingdom, lol - but it was my very last project to be finished since I would just work on it here and there when I was out since it was a very portable project. I thought I had it to a good length, then I tried it on him Christmas Eve and discovered he wanted another inch. SO I kept knitting. We watched It's A Wonderful Life and I knitted, but I managed to finish it before midnight that night.

He seems to really like this hat :) He wore it all day on Christmas even though it wasn't cold at all, but now that it is cold it's the hat he wears anytime he goes out. I take that as a good sign! Other than the moss stitch being tedious to knit English style, this couldn't have been an easier project.

So that was Justin's Christmas hat this year :) I love the texture, he loves the color and slouch - definitely a good one all round.

Thank you so much for enduring my Christmas makes. I like to document them all here just so I have a record of what I made more for myself than anything else. But now we will return to the regularly scheduled blogging of things for myself, lol.

Summary:
Yarn: 0.66 skeins Cloudborn Wool Worsted Twist in Slate Heather
Pattern: Slouchy Moss Beanie by Phanessa Fong
Time: A few hours collectively, but over a month

Christmas FO: The Knight's Helmet

I have established a bit of a Christmas tradition with my brother. After the past few years of me giving him hats, it just became what he get every year. But he doesn't seem to mind! He has quite the collection of somewhat novelty beanies now (multiple bearded beanies, a brain, plain, etc), so this year when it came close to Christmas he had a specific hat to request that he had seen online somewhere: A Knight's Helmet. No problem :) 

After a pattern search on Ravelry, we settled on the Extra Thick Knight's Helmet pattern by Brie Crochet. This is a free pattern plus it looked closest to Briggs' inspiration hat, so I started making it. The hat is "extra thick" by holding 2 strands of worsted weight yarn as one as you crochet. This made for the hat extra thick but also quite stiff and not very stretchy. I had to steam it quite a lot and stretch it out to not be uncomfortable on him. Happily this seemed to do the trick and it fits well now. I also had to make changes to the length - I don't remember exactly how many rows I added, but it was probably a good inch or more. I made the hat as directed, then tried it on my husband and it was comically short, so I ripped back and extended it.

The best feature of this hat is undoubtedly the moving face shield. I was hoping to use a darker gray for the shadow lines, but black was all I had on hand plus that's what the pattern calls for so I went with it. The face shield took a bit of steaming and stretching as well to not be so stiff. The pattern actually has you double up the yarn like you do for the rest of the yarn and then carry the two strands of the color you are not using and crochet around them tapestry style - so this thing is extra EXTRA thick, lol.

You can keep the face shield on or remove it because it functions with buttons. I bought these coat of arms buttons at Hobby Lobby just because it went with the theme so well. I love that you can slide the shield up on your forehead when you go inside but that you can also unbutton it completely if it drives you nuts.

Because I extended the hat, I also had to extend the fin. The fin piece was the only part of the pattern I had trouble with. The instructions don't really tell you where to start sewing the fin on - it just says to sew it on. I actually attached the whole thing only to discover that if you put the fin too far forward the shield won't slide up :/ So I had to remove it and try again. It got there in the end though.

And here it is on Briggs on Christmas day :) The face mask is a bit loose, but he wanted to test it like this to see if he needed it this far out to breathe easily, lol. This way it's also easy to slide up, so we'll see. 

I love the sizing and how the length turned out for Briggs. I think it's the perfect helmet length. He brought this when he visited a friend in Utah earlier this month, and apparently it worked nicely :)

Summary:
Yarn: 1.03 skeins of I Love This Yarn in Gray Mist, 9 gr Vanna's Choice in Black
Pattern: Extra Thick Knight's Helmet by Brie Crochet
Notions: two 7/8" Coat of Arms buttons

FO: Mattock Hat by Home Row Fiber Co

I knitted another hat - and this time it's for ME! lol

This is the just released Mattock Hat by Rochelle of Home Row Fiber Co. (the sewing community also knows her as Lucky Lucille). Rochelle released the Mattock Cowl back in March and she designed this hat to match. When she put an open call for testers on her Instagram, I decided to throw my name in the ring and she picked me :) I was pretty stoked, lol.

The Mattock Hat is a slouchy style beanie with a simple repeating texture pattern all the way around. The pattern only has 2 lines that repeat over and over, making this a really simple project that is easy to memorize. I knitted a gauge swatch before starting, but once that dried and showed it was spot on I got right to work!

The pattern lines up beautifully at the top, making for a neat and orderly center. I just love hats that do this, lol, it's the simple things, folks. I knitted my hat using a 24" circular needle, but you could easily use DPNs or a shorter circular needle (Rochelle recommends a 16"). I knitted my hat with the recommended size 7 needle and I love the gauge. It's tight enough to notice the textures, but it's loose enough to give a drapey fit and still breathe a bit. Normally my head overheats quickly with hats, but this one can stay on my head for quite a while with no built up heat.

I knitted my Mattock hat in Harvest by Feza Yarns, a worsted weight 100% merino wool that is dyed organically. I used the Citrus colorway and it's a bright lemon yellow that has just the slightest variation in the color (which I love). I won this yarn in  Facebook giveaway from Stitch Diva Studios last February, so I'm glad I have such a fun project from it. The yarn is wonderfully soft and was a pleasure to knit with. One little snag was at the very beginning of this project - when I went to wind this hank of yarn into a skein, I couldn't find the end of the yarn! I twisted, I separated, I did everything I could think of, but I was finally so frustrated with searching that I just cut a spot and started to pull from there. This was a nightmare that lead to me having to wind a ball by hand for about an hour because the hank kept knotting as I pulled, so I would have to untangle it on the swift. When I finished, I discovered why I found no end - there wasn't one! It's still the craziest thing, but when I cut my own place to start winding I fully expected to come across the actual factory ends of the yarn and need to join it back, but nope! No end. At All. So crazy. I'm glad the yarn was fun to work with because I was really not happy with it at first, lol.

Since this was a pattern test, I made sure to make it up just as written. I'll confess I was slightly skeptical about it being only one size since I have a "larger than average" head. Generally I can't buy hats in a store, and I have to make the largest size of knitted hats. This had a standard finished size of 19" around and my head is 23" around, so I was worried it wouldn't give the slouchy effect. I am very pleased I was wrong! The hat has just the right amount of casual slouch and it's super comfortable. I didn't even stretch it out in blocking - I did my usual blocking on a balloon to keep the round shape and I made sure the balloon was 19" around - but Rochelle includes great blocking instructions in the pattern so even a beginner could easily get a lovely result. The garter stitch brim is naturally quite stretchy, plus the body of the hat itself is basically a fancy ribbing, so all those knits and purls make this hat have a lot of "give", making even my large noggin fit it comfortably :)

All in all I'm thrilled with my new hat :) It's a fun design that is quick to make up and is comfy to wear - it's a triple threat! I love my new yellow hat, and I'm glad I get to share it now that the pattern is released. If you'd like to make your own Mattock Hat, head over to Ravelry and snap up the pattern for yourself! This would be a great pattern for making gifts, and I can personally vouch that it is a very detailed and well written pattern :) Thanks so much, Rochelle, for letting me test your pattern! Now I just need to make myself a Mattock Cowl to match, lol.

*I was given the Mattock Hat pattern for free to test the pattern with no obligation to blog about it. All opinions are 100% my own. I just really like this pattern :)

FO: Slouchy Moss Beanie

And now we have the final hat from Marisa's triumvirate :) This one was the wild card. She had picked a different pattern - Bothel by Tracey Todhunter - but when I went to make it I discovered that it was just a plain double crochet stitch hat. The pictures look very different, so I'm not really sure what's up there, but I just wasn't happy with the pattern. So when both the other hats were finished we had another little consultation and she picked this one.

This is the Slouch Moss Beanie by Phanessa Fong, another free pattern on Ravelry. It's a slouchy beanie knit in a moss stitch at a very loose gauge, giving it a nice texture. It also made it super stretchy, which is pretty fun and more comfy I think.

This is also made in Cascade 220 Superwash yarn, this time in the smoke gray colorway, I really like this color - a nice blue but not in your face. This yarn really worked fantastic for this style of hat - man I love 220 superwash :)

I really love this texture. I've never been a fan of knitting moss or seed stitch because I'm an English style knitter, so it's pretty tedious to change your yarn from front to back after every single stitch. Thankfully this was a small project, and while I did get a bit tired of all that moving toward the end I can't deny that it is a lovely outcome :)

Both of us agreed that this hat needed a little somethin extra, so I showed marisa the other colors of 220 superwash I have in my stash so she could pick a pom pom. In the end she settled on white. I made a 3.5" pom pom and holy cow does that take a lot of yarn! It took 11 grams just for this pom pom. Crazy. But it is a cute result.

And here's the hat's new owner, lol. Are you tired of seeing that same hill yet? This is a nice color for winter - it goes with the landscape but still stands out with its touch of more color.

So there you have it - my 3 hats that I made while I had the flu. In the end I'm really grateful I had these projects already lined up and ready to make. I don't know I could've handled a lot of decision making with my head in a fog, and the knitting really kept me from being completely miserable. So thanks, Marisa, for wanting so many hats, lol :)

FO: Cabled Beanie with Fur

The next hat in line that I sent to my sister actually turned out to be the overall favorite. 

This is the Basic Cabled Cap pattern by Judy Gibson, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. I liked that it's simple and only the same cable stitch over and over again, lol. Nice and easy. This one started out with a photo from my sister from a movie or tv show - after showing her all the photos of hat patterns I could make, I think it really got her into noticing knit wear. She sent the photo and I turned to Ravelry to find a pattern, and she liked the look of this one. Yay for a simple hat! 

The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash in the Turtle colorway. Something Marisa really liked about the inspiration hat photo was the big furry pom pom on top. Rather than pay who knows what at a craft store for a cheap one, I turned to ebay and searched their Chinese sellers. We settled on this one that sells as a faux fur brown fox pom pom. The only down side of buying things this way is the time it takes to arrive, so 3 weeks later when it showed up at my door I was a little surprised by what we got. This is real rabbit fur. This turned into one of those weird situations - neither my sister nor I would've deliberately bought a real fur pom pom, but now that  that's what it turned out to be, what can you really do? So while we both love bunnies, I used the pom pom and I have to say it looks really cute on this hat. This bunny lost its life already, and then came from China for only $4 so there really wasn't much I could do about it. Don't hate me, lol.

I love the simple cable in this hat. It's just one cable stitch every 4 rows so it was very easy to memorize. This simplicity came in really handy when I had the flu. After finishing Bronntanas, I just picked up the next yarn and set to work, so my fuzzy brain was grateful for the mindlessness of this project.

Being a real fur pom pom, you don't really want to worry about washing it. I doubt the hat will need washing all that often, but in case it does we are in luck since the pom pom comes already sewn onto a snap button. You just sew the receiving end to your hat and you're done :) So if she gets it all dirty she can just pop off the pom pom and throw it in the washer. Yay for simplicity all around!

And here is Marisa posing with one of her cats :)

And here is the hat on her tubing trip.

All in all I love how this hat turned out. It was easy to make and super comfy to wear. I definitely recommend this pattern if you're needing a quick and easy project :)