“And now for something completely different…”

Well, not completely. These are more hat projects, but this time for the smallest head in my neck of the woods.

green_aviatrix2This is Aviatrix Hat, a Justine Turner design available on Ravelry in English, Swedish and Polish. As of early March 2014, 8031 Ravelers have posted a completed Aviatrix on their project page. It is a very cool pattern, generously offered free.

I’ve been pondering buttons on baby clothes recently, now that Isaac is almost 5 months old. So, I decided to do a nice beefy bobble instead of a button. Not the best solution, but not the worst either. Since it’s for Isaac, I should rename mine the Aviator Hat.

At first, I used a basic wrap and turn short row. The wraps were unfortunately way too visible. I started over with Cat Bordhi’s short row technique: part 1 and part 2. Honestly, for me, the wraps didn’t look much better using her technique. The wraps on the purl side seemed to do me in.

green_aviatrix

But I really like this little hat and decided to try again. My new brainstorm was that the short row wraps would not look so messy in a heavier weight yarn. My green Aviatrix is knit in Berroco Vintage Worsted, a rather lightweight worsted. So I tried again, this time in Lion Brand Martha Stewart Craft Extra Soft Wool Blend.

aviatrix2This one turned out a tad better. The wraps don’t look as much like newbie knitting. Running out of brown yarn didn’t help the overall effect, though.

aviatrixThis time I semi-solved the baby-clothes-with-buttons problem by knitting two ties instead of one and lengthening them both a bit so the hat can be tied under the chin. And, actually, the purple and brown is not a horrid combination after all.

This next cutie is part of Doreen Marquart’s Tri-Color Ensemble from “Grammy’s Favorite Knits for Baby.”

tricolorhat2

tricolor_hat

It’s knit with leftovers. The rust and brown are Berroco Vintage Sport and the gold is Madelinetosh Tosh DK in the candlewick colorway. All washable and easy care. I had small bits of the Tosh DK left–enough to work up the mitts part of the set.

mitts

I like the real-life, untraditional baby colors of this set. The pattern is accurate, sensibly laid out, with no errors. The color and stitch changes keep it interesting. This will be a pattern I’ll return to.

tricolorhat_mitt