Baby Hat Obsession

A number of my friends are having babies!  And boys, so I've been trying to find out-of-the ordinary ways to make some boy baby gifts.  I came across these two knit baby hat patterns that I just love:  Tegan by Julie Taylor and a scalloped hat from Marie Carlander's blog (don't worry, keep scrolling down her site for the English version).  I loved them so much, I really became obsessed with knitting them.  Plus, as beautiful as a crocheted baby hat is, it just won't have the same stretchiness that a knit one does. 

Now, mind you, I can do simple knitting, but using DPNs (double point needles) and a circular needle are quite new to me.  Joelle from Wandering Wool helped me pick out the right needles from Chia Goo (affiliate link below), and I like them a lot.  I've been using Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash because it's machine washable and can be tumble dried and it's just soft and great to work with. 

But, really, whether it's crochet or knitting, it's all about repetition and practicing.  Now that I'm on my fourth hat, it's feeling quite good. 

I think the skull pattern turned out pretty good too since it was my first try at using two colors and making an image in the knitting.  The dad-to-be is the sweetest guy but has lots of tattoos, etc., so I knew I had to come up with an edgy baby hat :-).  More pix to come!

Mosaic Knitting with Melissa Leapman

I was so fortunate yesterday to get to go to Melissa Leapman's class at Looped Yarn Works on Mosaic Knitting.  Now, I know of Ms. Leapman as an amazing crochet designer, and her book Cool Crochet: 30 Hot, Fun Designs to Crochet and Wear is full of beautiful and fun-to-make projects.  So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find out about her knitting skills and designs, but I guess I thought she belongs to just us crocheters ;-).

She made the process of mosaic knitting so easy to understand and do, and I loved how the yarn didn't get all tangled and messy while working on our swatches.  It's a technique that uses slipped stitches to create the illusion of working a row with two colors when you're really only using one on that row.  By slipping a different colored loop from the row below, you elongate the stitch and make it appear to be mixed in with the color you are using on that row.  It's a little hard to explain but easy and fun to do (though you really have to pay attention what you are doing and the graph you're working on, which, by the way, is totally opposite from a crochet graph!!)

I went ahead and got her new book Color Knitting the Easy Way because there's a jacket in there that I really want and now feel like I could actually make!  I might save it for next fall though since it takes bulky yarn and size 11 needles -- I can see me making it now and wanting to wear it right away just as spring starts to appear!