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