Thursday, December 18, 2014

Ready for a Wee Noggin

One more project to slash off my list of "nesting" projects -- the Dayton Cabled Baby Aviator Helmet! It's such fun knitting for a baby; the small size means less time between me and that gratifying sense of accomplishment. Surely I'm not the only one who likes that?




I knit this pretty much as-is, using Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Chipmunk. It's a lovely merino and alpaca blend, with a super soft hand (even softer after blocking!). About half-way through I felt a growing terror that one skein would not be enough -- at one point I even weighed my remaining yarn on my kitchen scale to get an idea of how much I'd already used! In the end I had leftover yarn, so apparently my yardage estimation skills are scandalously bad. 




This poor hat sat for quite a while on my needles once I reached the cable section, primarily because I had to change needle sizes at that point. That meant that this project didn't qualify as "grab and go," which is all I really had time for just then. Besides, I had some pressing birthday and Christmas projects to attend to! At any rate, I finally tackled the rest. Why are cables so satisfying? Before trying them, I thought they would be incredibly difficult. They look difficult, don't they? I still love to pore over any knitted item with cables; unlike many things that lose their "magic" when you know how they're done, I think I'm even more fascinated by how the cables twist and weave now than I was before.




I'd love to make this again, as it would be a perfect baby shower present. Though next time I will certainly knit it in the round -- it would require a few modifications to the pattern, but nothing drastic. I might rewrite the cable bit anyway, as I found the organization of that bit slightly confusing (too much "repepat rows 1 and 2" -- it makes perfect sense, but is not the easiest thing to read when in the middle of a project).





At any rate, our little lad should have a warm noggin when he finally makes his appearance in a few months -- assuming his little "helmet" fits (as I think it will). He's been celebrating the start of the third trimester by making sure that I *know* he's there. I certainly welcome his (admittedly pugilistic) reminders!

8 comments:

  1. That's such a sweet hat! It's nice that it has a button under the chin... I'm learning how valuable that is with small children. It's a lovely color, too.

    I've been taking up knitting again recently and I just learned how to do cables! Douglas has been requesting a scarf from me for eons so, of course, at the last minute, I decided to knit him one for Christmas. :) It's a reversible cable pattern with a moss stitch border. We'll see if I get it done in time...

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    1. Thanks, Laura! :-) I'm hoping the button flap will be the right size -- I suppose if it's too short I could add a tie or something like that. The color really is great (although my husband saw it in semi-darkness while I was knitting and thought it was *purple!*), and I love the tweedy flecks.

      Ooh, reversible cables! I hadn't heard of those before! Hopefully we'll get a look at it when it's done? *hint hint*

      Blessings,
      Shannon

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  2. I'm so happy to see you using KnitPicks yarn, lol. I feel like I've made a convert!
    I haven't tried the City Tweed yet; I look at it and think about it, but I can't really picture it in any of the projects I want to do right now. The hat is lovely, though; maybe I'll just buy some and knit up wee little hats :D

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    1. Laura Elizabeth,

      You're the one who told me about Knit Picks, so I think I definitely count as your convert! :-) I hadn't really looked at the tweeds until this project came up -- I think you're right about them needing the right project.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Blessings,
      Shannon

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  3. So cute. Great job you did on that. It will look so cute on your son :)

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    1. Thanks, Danice! I certainly can't wait to see it on our little guy. :-)

      Blessings,
      Shannon

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  4. I'm making this hat now. Could you help me out? What does patt 4 mean? Do I continue the cable or simply use a kni stitch? Can you explain this part?

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    1. Mary,

      It's been a while since I made this, so I can't really visualize it -- but from re-reading the pattern, I'm pretty sure it means to repeat the 4-stitch cable pattern, found on the end of pg 3/beginning of pg 4. In other words, the actual "C4B" stitch only occurs every 6 rows, so figure out which row of the cable pattern you're on and do that. It will be either K4, P4, or C4B. Different sizes might mean you're on a different row of the cable pattern, so the pattern reads "patt 4" instead of a specific instruction. Does that make sense? I'm horrible at explaining this stuff, even when it makes sense in my head! :-)

      Blessings,
      Shannon

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