Free Pattern: Highlands Baby Santa Hat
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| This hat is shown unblocked. Irregularities should even out with washing and blocking. |
College recommendation letters. An application for a grant for international
travel. A PowerPoint presentation on my
recent visit to another high school in our state. Lessons.
Feedback on student essays. At
this point in time, my creative juices—at least in the writing region of my psyche—are a
bit dried up. I have, however, spent the
last week or so designing and knitting up a cute Santa hat. This hat, with its 14-inch circumference at the
base, will fit a baby from roughly three months to one year of age.
The designing and knitting project went rather smoothly. I’m finally getting a handle on the math of decreasing and increasing in the round. (The whole experience of envisioning a simple design and executing it from scratch has added to the humility I experience when I see all of the creative, intricate knitting patterns designed and displayed by other bloggers).
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| Adding rows of plain knitting between the decrease rows lengthens the top of the hat, causing a pointed effect. |
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| This woolly Filatura di Crosa Lupo yarn is perfect for the ball on top. |
I hope some folks do find some use for my pattern, however simple it is. I called it the Highlands Baby Santa hat after a town in the North Carolina mountains because the alpaca makes it warm and cozy enough to wear in northern climes. Click here to access the PDF pattern.
In addition to my baby steps at designing patterns, I’ve also been engaged in a woodworking project—creating drop spindles in preparation for a visit from Ivy of Pumpkin Spins, who is going to come to a meeting of the Fiber Arts Club at the school where I teach and demonstrate spinning with a top whorl spindle. I ordered a whole slew of birch dowels, toy wheels, and cup hooks and spent last weekend sawing, hammering, gluing, and screwing in hooks.I brought the dowels to school yesterday and enlisted the help of some students in sanding the spindles. Aside from one student’s having to wear an eye patch after the sanding, the project seems to be going well. (The student wears contact lenses and ended up with some sawdust in her eye. She’s patchless today, though, so I hope the irritation has cleared up.)
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| Here is a view of my drop spindles, which still need much more sanding and then a coat of varnish. |
I completely sympathize with the "dried up" feeling, the end of the semester can do that to you. Hang in there! Also, the fact that you have been able to do all of the things you've mentioned AND create a free pattern is astounding. Someday you need to teach me your secret to productivity. Lastly, those spindles look absolutely amazing, seriously. They look very nice and should spin wonderfully! I cannot believe that you are going to varnish them too, whew! You cannot draft more helpers for that too? I'm really looking forward to next month, it is going to be fun!
ReplyDeleteCute baby hat! Thanks for sharing :) Also great job on the spindles, I am looking forward to hearing how that goes.
ReplyDeleteI love this hat! And that lovely fluffy furry white yarn for the border and pom pom is wonderful. Everyone is making hats at the moment - they make great discrete projects and nice Christmas presents. Have experimented with a crocheted cloche hat but am not quite sure about it yet! We'll see! What a wonderful idea to get your students into spinning! Your spindles are most ingenious. Happy sanding! E x
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I've read your post - I've been feeling so run down by school this week - I've nearly given up on my blog. Fantastic hat adn can't wait to see what the spindles produce. Judy.
ReplyDeleteThis is in reply to the comment about the pavlova - yes it's named after Anna pavlova. It really is an easy but flashy-looking desert. The trick to making it is not to let it know you want it to be perfect - treat it with disdain, don't let it know you care - I always find that with pavlovas when I'm making them for dinner parties they go wrong but for sunday lunch at home they are always fine - it's as if they can pick up on the stress! When you are 'squodging' the meringue onto the baking paper, don't squash it down - just allow it to rest on the paper with the minimum of prodding about. When it's had its hour in the oven, turn the oven off and leave it cool down overnight. At this time of year you could use seasonal fruit such as figs, kumquats and pomegranates as a change to strawberries or raspberries. Good Luck - I'll be thinking of you on Thanksgiving! Judy.
ReplyDeleteCute little Santa hat! You are certainly managing to accomplish alot and teach also!
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