Year of the Dragon!

As many of you know, this week marked the start of the Year of Dragon.  In honour of this celebration, as well as my own magnetism towards dragons, I decided we'd make a dragon hat for the little man.  Also featured in this photo shoot, my beloved Puff who was my childhood companion (and I suppose will now be Henry's best friend too).

I crocheted this hat, once again using Vanna's Choice yarn which is nice and washable and doesn't felt.  I made the pattern up on the fly, I really ought to write these things down, but I'm pretty sure I could recreate it.

At first I was worried that the ridge wouldn't stand up on this hat, but as you can see, that was no concern after all:

Daddy making him smile:

Best buds already!

Oh, hi Puff, where did you get that wicked bandana?

Ok mom, I'm done!

In other news, I am in the process of building some stock so that I can reopen my Etsy store, so stay tuned for that!  I will make an announcement when it's ready to go.

G.

Tam o'Shanter

In case you didn't know, Robbie Burns Day is coming up this week (the 25th of January).  Last year my husband and I were at an irish pub on Robbie Burns day, that, for some reason was honouring Robbie Burns (even though he was Scottish).  We had only just learned I was pregnant at this point, and were seeing one of my sisters off on her trip to the Dominican Republic.  Also interesting about this dinner, former maple leaf Glen Healey was playing bagpipes at the bar that night....weird.

A little history for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about: Robert Burns was a rather famous Poet from Scotland.  One of his more famous works is a poem called Tam o'Shanter (you can see it here [as you may have guessed, I love wikipedia]).  This particular poem happens to have a hat named after it, the Tam o'Shanter cap.  I thought it would be nice to honour Robbie Burns day with a hat this week.  I got this pattern on ravelry.

Here is my serious little man:

And now my happy little man!:

One more happy one, so you can see the whole get up:

Isn't it amazing how much that smile transforms his little face?  Such a cutie if I don't say so myself!

G.

Go Leafs Go!

Happy Sunday!  

Another week has gone by, I can't believe how the time is passing!  First, as promised, I've included some pictures of the fiddlehead mittens I was working on last week:

 Here is a picture of the lining (I used red baby alpaca yarn, so it's super soft)

 The pattern was easy to follow and kind of fun!  I will definitely make them again, probably sometime soon!

As the title suggests, Henry's hat this week is hockey themed.  We're hoping to give the Leafs some better luck for their game on Tuesday against Ottawa.  You can't see it so well, but Henry is also wearing his Maple Leafs sleeper in these pictures.

I knit just a basic hat this week, then I ironed on a Maple Leaf patch which I purchased on ebay some time ago with this hat in mind.  Iron on was not entirely ideal with the acrylic yarn, but I managed to get it attached with very, very minor melting involved (you can see it a little to the right of the logo in the last picture, it just looks a little shiny).  

My sweet little boy is a Leafs fan, just like his Daddy!  Go Leafs Go!

G.

Henry visits his Scottish roots.

This week I decided it was time to face my fears and make a Fair Isle patterned hat.  Since it was my first real attempt, I decided to go with something simple with only 2 alternating colours.  Although I'm sure I could have easily found a pattern for a fair isle baby hat, I decided to design this one myself.  I started by charting the pattern

 It took a little longer than planned, I probably spent one whole evening just charting it all out, but I didn't want to chance just winging it.

The next challenge was keeping even tension on 2 strands the whole time:

 So far so good!  In the next picture you can see the pattern starting to evolve:

 Just prior to casting off:

Once all that was done, I really ought to have blocked it, but I really hate blocking and it fit Henry ok the size it was.  I don't really mind the wrinkles it has all that much.

And now what you've all been waiting for, Henry in his hat!

Such a serious little man!  Hard to believe he's not quite 4 months yet, he looks so grown up here!

I must say, Fair Isle was a lot less difficult than I expected.  In light of my new skills, I am now also making Fiddlehead Mittens which are turning out awesome so far!  I'll include a picture of the finished product next week.

Hope you all enjoyed!  As always, new hat next week!

G.

Happy New Year! Guten Rutsch!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I just threw this hat together quickly as the occasion called for a theme hat.  

Henry as the New Years Baby:

 He looks a little like he's scheming something in this first one.

 Why are you taking my picture when I'm all naked Mom?

Thanks to Auntie Chrissy for helping with the pose!

Here's to 2012, may it be as wonderful as 2011!

G.