Plumbers and Hats

I'm still not getting much knitting done. I started the snails on the Kauni, but I did it while plumbers were running up and down the stairs and shouting, so when I started the second round I found an rather enormous mistake quite soon. I was doing the pair of snails, so I've ripped it back and I'm now doing single snails, all heading in the same direction. It's not worth photographing yet, but I'll let you see it when the coils are beginning to show.

The plumbers are finished meanwhile, although the floor may need to come up again to see if any horrible damage has been done by the puddles. The news on the insurance front isn't too good, but having a dry floor is a considerable consolation.

Greatgranny, I don't know about 'binnock', but a bannock is a sort of bread. It's a large oatcake or a flatbread, a bit like a large scone, and if it was a few days old it would certainly be hard. There is a delicious variation on it called a Selkirk Bannock, which is full of sultanas and butter. A Selkirk Bannock allegedly has a shelf-life of two months, but I don't think I've ever made one last more than a couple of days. I eat it spread thickly with butter too. When I lived in London I sometimes startled my friends into silence by spreading butter on gingerbread, which is the way it's eaten in Scotland. Mmmm, butter.

The huge pink hat in the previous post is the Daisy Hat from Itty Bitty Hats, by Susan B. Anderson. I've knitted it three times in different sizes and this is the biggest. I think I must have knitted it quite loosely too. The Bunny hat in the jigsaw (see sidebar) is from the same book. You can't see them here, but it has the cutest bunny ears. And there are some more here - it's a wonderful book.

And Knittingwoman, I have added a hat jigsaw, just for you.

Baby Hats

I've been knitting some little hats for my cousin's daughter's baby, due next month. It's one of those mixed times, because my cousin died two years ago of ovarian cancer and while we're all looking forward to welcoming Baby, we're all thinking of the person who won't be here. However, Baby still needs hats.

All of these are from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hats. When the baby's mum was born, I bought her a lovely striped woolly hat (I wasn't knitting at that time, so I had to buy one.) It made her itch and gave her bumps, but my cousin liked it so much that she made a little cotton lining for it so that her daughter could wear it. So, just in case this baby has itches, I've made all of the hats in cotton.

We don't know whether Baby is a boy or a girl but the original delivery date was Hallowe'en, so I started with a Pumpkin Hat. It's in Rowan Handknit Cotton instead of RYC Cashsoft. I've ordered some hand-dyed cotton called Autumn Leaves from Mystical Creation Yarns to make a Baby Surprise Jacket to go with this, but it hasn't arrived yet. I suppose if a company actually has the word 'mystical' in its name, I shouldn't expect them to be very organized about going to the Post Office, and I'm sure it'll be lovely when it gets here.

Next, I made a stripy hat (you know about me and stripes). In the book, this hat is striped red and white, but I wanted something a bit softer. I discovered this lovely shade in Handknit Cotton, called Gooseberry, and I was sold. I love gooseberries and this is a lovely fruity shade, strong without being acid. Baby's dad is of Irish descent, so I hope he'll like the green.


I hadn't made a pompom for decades, and this took two goes, but I was pleased with it in the end.

The third one I made is the Felted Flower Hat. This one came out quite large, even after the hot wash and hot dry. I'm still dithering about putting it through again and giving it another blast. On the other hand, it's quite heavy and might be more useful later when Baby's a bit bigger. I think I'll leave it alone.

I think it'll be a good hat for a boy, without the flower, and if it's a girl, then the pink Koigu flower can be sewn on. I didn't do the felted flower in the book, because I'm very taken with the flowers on Nicky Epstein's Anniversary scarf for Vogue, so I just did a couple of them.

The bigger flower, on the shelf, is a corsage for Mum to wear so that she can match her baby girl, or not of course if it's a boy. By the time I knit the next hat, I'll know what colour to choose.