baby hats – New England's Narrow Road

My best friend has recently become a Grandma for the first time. Now I am the only one of “us” who does not have that title. I have the most children, but may never have grand babies. Who knows? I can’t blame people for not wanting to raise kids in this world. Lots of young people are sticking to raising furbabies instead.

So, I am knitting for her grand baby, and of course I am making little baby hats.

Needle size 4US, cast-on 72. I use the German Twisted CO. Go from there and create your own little hat. I guessed at height as I don’t have a baby’s head handy for trying on!

Make Them Washable!

First off, any baby items need to be easy to care for. Although hats will probably not get all that dirty, when the time comes for cleaning, they must be machine washable. We can’t expect any new parents to take the time to hand-wash anything!

All the yarn I used is sock yarn, which is washable. But then I wanted to add a pompom to the green and purple hat.

Making My Pom Pom

Is pompom two words or one? I’m trying it both ways, so I will be right at least part of the time.

Pompoms can be made without a little pompom maker gadget, but the gadget is fun and there are lots of videos to show you how to use it.

However, do you make the pompom and add it before washing, or after? If the hat is ever to be washed again… which hopefully it will be at some point …. don’t you want to know that the pompom will hold up? Yarn is dirty, so it must be washed, and the pompoms should be added once the hat is knit, before washing – unless it’s a fur pompom. That is another blog post – some you can wash, I think.

If you don’t have a pompom maker like the one in my photo below, you can make a pompom using cardboard. This blog post shows one way to do that. Some people use forks. There is lots of info out there.

If you have any hat knitting books, chances are they may include a “how to” for pompoms and tassels. My pompom maker was really too large, so I had to cut the finished pompom down quite a bit.

pompom maker wrapping yarn — Making a pompom – that would later fall apart while washing!

baby hat with pompom — Pompom which needs trimming

How to Add a PomPom to a Hat

I knew from experience that pompoms can be floppy if they are not attached correctly. And I always thought I needed to use the ends from the pompom to secure it. The secret is to use the hat yarn to go up through the pompom and back down again. To see how, check out this wonderful tutorial about “how to add a pompom to a hat”. the video is excellent.

Then I Lost My Pompom

When I began hand-washing, which is soaking really, the last hat I made, which is the green and purple one, suddenly there were bits of yarn all over the sink! The whole pompom came apart, so now the hat has nothing on top. And, I’ve wasted a bunch of yarn. And I am wondering how to finish this hat. Maybe a tassel would work.

I’m also wondering why this happened. Possibly the yarn was too silky, so the strands slipped right out.

Three little hand-knit baby hats — Baby size hats stretched over apples!

The orange and pink striped had was knit using hand-spun yarn from two different skeins. I really like the look of that one.

Two hand knit hats with pompoms — Pompom hats

I had knit the Curly Snowflake Hat and purple baby hat at about the same time, so after the pompoms were attached, I washed them together in the sink. The difference is the yarn: the big hat is wool, and the baby hat is sock. The gray pompom held up to the soak, but not the little one.

This post is a bit about my current knitting and the happenings in a life spent at home during a Florida summer.

It’s summer in Florida, and that always means two things for sure: Afternoon thunderstorms, and hurricanes on the horizon. Hurricane season picks up in another month, but the afternoon storms are here. The ditches fill, power goes out, the cable goes out (along with the AC) and I sit and wonder – Maybe getting an automatic generator IS a good way to spend my meager savings.

Yesterday a lightning bolt hit close by and the power was out for a couple hours. So what did I spend my time doing? Knitting, of course! There was just enough light, once the storm clouds passed, to see my brownish yarn on my green needles (not a good combo). I finished knitting my son’s watchcap.

Homemade Granola For Healthy Snacking

Yesterday, before the power went out, I baked up some granola. It’s been a while since I made granola, but it’s been on my mind. All this sitting around makes me munch, so it may as well be healthy munching.

If you are interested, here is how I made mine: Mix the oats (2-3 cups), nuts, coconut, sunflower seeds, etc., with oil (coconut) and sweetener (honey and / or real maple syrup), then bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees, stirring halfway through. After it bakes to a crispy brownness, mix in dried apricots, cranberries, and raisins, or any dried fruit. Store tightly covered and eat within a few weeks.

It is yummy. I eat it on my Greek yogurt too.

Mixing fruit into my homemade granola — Basics of making granola with fruit

Knitting Little Quick Baby Hats

Also, in the knitting department, I have been having fun knitting little baby hats for my BBF’s new granddaughter. She (the new baby) lives in California, but I was told it gets cold there, so why not send hats? I made up these little hats, and didn’t like the first one. Tiny hats use very little yarn, so if the end result is not that great, move on and do another. I knit these with 9 inch circular needles, until the top, where I needed DPNs.

Gardening and Bird Watching

I do have a job, and I spend a lot of time in my bedroom at the computer doing that job, and I can see the bird feeder just outside my window. Birds in Florida don’t need to be fed, but with the green spaces being torn out right and left, maybe they need a little help. Plus, I love watching birds. This is a leftover habit from living in New Hampshire when I fed birds all winter.

As far as vegetable gardening in Florida goes, my fingers are crossed that something will grow well enough to give me fresh veggies. It is unlikely. I let my straggly garden grow because the birds love to hop around in there in search of bugs and worms. I have one little squirrel who eats the seeds as well.

Feeding the birds and a squirrel — Summer green

Fair Isle Graph Book Gift to Myself

I’ve been wanting the Shetlander’s Fair Isle Graph Book for a while, but it’s out of stock in many places. I broke down and ordered from the UK, and spent more than I would have liked, but I now have this book which is full of old (1940’s) colorwork knitter’s graphs.

This book is pretty cool. Some of the graph pages show through behind my yarn photo below. I can’t wait to get started on a new Fair Isle project and try out these old designs.

I do love the Rauma, and Jamieson & Smith wool for knitting fun colorwork patterns. The yarn was bought for mittens, but I never used it for mittens, only for hats. (See Katie’s Kep) Then I found a good place, with good prices, to order the wool, and added to my stash. (If you buy this type of yarn, check out Fairlight Fibers.)

Since I have given up knitting shawls or socks, for the time being, I’m not buying “sock yarn”, except when I come across a beautiful hand-spun. The striped baby hat, in my photo above, was knit with pink and yellow (two different skeins) handspun.

Newly Ordered Yarn

I’m still not a connoisseur of yarns, and sometimes it’s hit or miss. My list of favorite yarns is growing, but that only happens when I take risks and try new yarn.

Yes, I still order yarn, but this yarn has a purpose. I am getting a head start on Christmas gifts, which will mostly be … hats! Big surprise.

Quince & Co. Lark (worsted) – Knitting the Skiff Watchcap and not too sure about this yarn. Review to come. (I already knit the Skiff Beanie)
The Fibre Company “Acadia” – hasn’t arrived yet.

What About You?

I’d love to hear what you are up to while sitting around at home – if you are. Are you controlling your yarn purchases better than I am? Have you begun Christmas knitting projects? Would you share your own favorite yarns list here? What have you knit lately? Have you spent some time organizing that stash?

Thanks for reading.