a little Christmas blessing.

A very close and dear friend of mine welcomed their first child into the world last week after a harrowing few hours. Thankfully, baby and Mom are doing wonderfully. The family will be spending Christmas at home with their family in a town in South-Eastern BC called Cranbrook. It’s a gorgeous town that thrives on resource-based industry nestled in the Rocky Mountain trench. So it is cold. Very cold. Beautiful. But cold.

I couldn’t send little Kate home with her dear parents without a new winter toque to brave the snow and ice! What kind of a friend would I be?!

Pattern: Alfalfa Baby Hat by Kate Gagnon-Osborn

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Rios, colourway 139 Pocion

Needles: 4.00mm

I just love this toque. I still think it looks like a gnome hat – it is just so adorable. TinyTuna’s head has grown since I made his but the toque still fits (although snuggly). It will be a little big on Kate but she’ll grow into it very quickly – she is the same size Tiny was when he was born (and the same length, weird, huh?).

The Rios is perfect for this pattern as it is interesting enough too highlight, rather than detract from, the pattern of increases and decreases. You can see in the two photos below, if you read the pattern and study the photos carefully, that I changed the decreases slightly and worked them as follows:

Knit to 3 stitches prior to marker, ssk, K1, sm, K1, k2tog.

I did this because if you look at my original toque, the ssk and k2tog pull apart when they are stretched over the baby’s head. It is not terrible but now that he has grown, they pull apart really profoundly. I do not like the look of them so I thought adding the 2 stitches between them would help with ease.

As you can see in the photos, it worked perfectly:

I will mention, though, it made working the decreases in the crown a little tricky as I had to move things around a little bit but I will definitely work this the same way next time. I have one more half-skein on Rios in my stash that will become a second slightly bigger alfalfa for Tiny. I am thinking about knitting it on 4.5mm for the extra room he now needs.

gnomes.

This is a wonderful and fast knit – especially when I only have 30 minutes here and there to pick up my needles! M is calling this his ‘gnome’ hat – it kind of does look like a gnome shape …

Pattern: Alfalfa baby hat by Kate Gagnon Osborn

Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in 856 Azules

Needles: 4.00mm

Kate’s shaping that she worked into the pattern is amazing – it really fits around his head perfectly. It’s brilliant!

And simple. I knit this in worsted weight as I also wanted it a little bigger – he’ll outgrow it too quickly otherwise.

I had a very grumpy little one on my hands while photographing him – but he likes his toque. He smiles when I put it on him.

I will definitely be knitting this again – probably on 5.00mm needles for a bigger size. He seems to have a big head :)

What brilliant knits have you been working on?

sherwood forest.

I have always loved the stories of Robin Hood, King Arthur and his knights, and generally anything medieval. I also love anything done by the BBC so when I stumbled on Robin Hood (2006) on Netflix while looking for something to watch while nursing in the middle of night, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. And I’ve really enjoyed the series – sadly, though, I’m on the last episode of the last season. Bummer.

A gem that I have figured out while settling tiny tuna back to sleep after said nursing is to knit! The gentle rocking motion of my left arm – I knit continental – lulls him to sleep. Brilliant!

The problem is that I need small projects to be able to knit since a heavy sweater is hard to hold at the same time as supporting his weight on my arm. Enter toque knitting!

Pattern: Robin Hood by Grace Akhrem

Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed HW in colour Tabby

Needles: 4.5mm circulars

This knit up literally overnight – he was awake this morning from 2:30 to 4:30am and just couldn't settle. Prime knitting time!

The highlight of this toque is of course the brim – it is very cool. I will definitely be knitting this again.

I hope this finds you enjoying the end of summer :)