Toddler Slouchy Hat

In addition to thoroughly enjoying last night's opening ceremony, the hours of tv time enabled me to whip out another project:  a hat and fingerless gloves for Naomi.



I'd picked up this handspun yarn at a Renaissance festival last year.  When I went hunting through my stash for it I was originally thinking that I'd use it to make a pair of socks for me.  But once I'd unearthed it, I saw that it was worsted weight and only had 142 yards - not enough for a pair of socks.  So I figured that I'd make a hat instead.  I used Ravelry's pattern finder to find a good free pattern that uses this weight of yarn - I stumbled upon Purl Bee's Simple Pleasures Hat.  I used this pattern as a guideline, rather than following it exactly.  Although the original pattern is super cute - I could see making one exactly like this.



I wanted  a simple pattern that would showcase the handspun yarn.  However when I was finished I felt like it was just 'meh'.  Nice enough, but nothing to get excited about.  I felt like it needed a little something something.  Many moons ago I'd made this little felt flower from a Martha Stewart kit and decided that it would be a cute addition.



Once the hat was complete, I still had some yarn leftover, which is why I decided to make some matching fingerless mittens.  These are extremely simple to make.  I cast on 24 stitches and knit in the round until the palm piece reached where the thumb hole should start.  Then work back and forth for the a couple of rows to allow a gap for the thumb hole.  And finally knit back in the round again for the length that you'd like the mitten.  Very simple and very fast.  I wasn't convinced that Naomi would even wear these - I haven't been able to keep any gloves on her before now.  But she really liked them.  Another success.

OK, back to the games, and my most recent project - a Citron shawl using this lovely yarn.

Bye for now,
Sam xxx