October 2013 – That Crafty Cara

Because it’s October,
Because I have an adorable little nephew who is going to totally rock this hat,
And because I’ve harbored a secret desire to design knitting patterns for almost a decade.

Here it is, my debut pattern, self-published on Ravelry and available to any who wish to partake of its cuteness.

Yes, I’m proud.

Broken down to its bare bones, this is just a simple little hat with cables and a little bit of colorwork on the top. This particular version was knit with Rowan Felted Tweed DK, which was quite nice to work with. I prefer DK-weight yarns for kids’ hats because of its lighter weight. Worsted can so easily get too bulky on wee people, but DK-weight just works so perfectly.

Monkeyboy is modeling the hat, but it has been knit to fit a slightly smaller child, so it’s a tad snug on my boy’s noggin. I’ll probably knit him one in the 2-4 year size since he was such a fan of wearing it for the pictures.

You can read more about the pattern over on Ravelry, and you can buy the pattern if you’d like. There’s just something about knitting up little pumpkins this time of year and watching little people run around with stems atop their heads. Makes me smile so much.

Last week I treated you to a shot of a pumpkin hat-in-progress. I finished it shortly thereafter, and loved it immensely. Unfortunately, it was majorly too small for its intended recipient. What you see is presented to you only as photographic evidence that the too-small first version of this hat did indeed exist in its entirety at some point.

I dutifully cast on for a second try, and I’ve been churning away on Pumpkin Hat #2 ever since. However, it got serious last night: I ran out of orange yarn.

I had to decide between buying another skein, or sacrificing the petite version to feed the gluttonous beast that is the\second hat.