Knitting tiny hats

I don't know if you've ever spotted Innocent smoothie bottles in the shops with tiny, knitted hats on? I first noticed these a couple of years ago whilst my husband & I were on a trip in Birmingham; the campaign worked - we must have bought at least four bottles (those tiny hats are now on some of my teddy bears) and we were introduced to the Age UK campaign that those sales contributed to (25p of each sale goes to their campaign to help keep elderly people warm this winter).

Now, for the first time, I actually appear to be in time to take part in the Big Knit by knitting my own tiny hats and I'd encourage anyone with even basic knitting skills, a little time and some spare yarn to join in, too. Make sure you send any hats off to the address on this page (along with your name, address and the number of hats that you've knitted) before this Friday (14th October)!

You can find patterns on their website, or make your own. Personally, I'm tempted to humour my inner geek and make a few hats inspired by Firefly's Jayne Cobb, using this pattern.

Baby knitting

I thought I'd just run through a couple of completed projects. Two years ago, everyone around me seemed to be either pregnant, or be very close to someone who was, and it was the inspiration provided by the impending arrival of cute, tiny people that encouraged me to get back into knitting. 

Having not tried any knitting since middle school (the last project from which that I recall making was a knitted pencil case in very vibrant shades of pink, purple and yellow), I wandered nervously into a local knitting shop and distracted myself for at least an hour with the wide variety of delightfully soft baby yarns available.

I eventually decided to start knitting a jumper for my best friend's as-yet-unborn baby boy. Not knowing at that point that he was going to be a boy, I finally decided to use Sirdar Baby Bamboo in a lovely, pale green/blue shade, as seen in a poor photograph of the finished jumper, below.

Baby Bamboo contains no acrylic and feels extremely silky against the skin, but did have a habit of splitting occasionally. Not enough to keep me from using it again, however, as it comes in a wonderful array of colours and, according to my friend, washes well (although I should probably note that you can't tumble dry it).

The pattern was an "Easy Knit" one from Sirdar and, sure enough, it was. Given that I've only ever knitted rectangles before, though, I did learn a few abbreviations and techniques. It was so much fun, watching it all come together, though! I'm longing for another Baby Bamboo project just thinking about it.

For my second baby project, however, I decided to try a different yarn: Sirdar's Snuggly DK. Although this one is more artificial in its make up, you can tumble dry it (something, although I don't have any children of my own yet, I think I'd appreciate) and it's still very soft, albeit less silky. It doesn't have the "drape" of the bamboo, but also because of that feels lighter.

Feeling positive after my "Easy Knit" experience, I decided to try another Baby Bamboo pattern by Sirdar: Duffle Coat 1733. I simply chose it for its looks! Plus, I wanted to learn how to knit cables and thought I'd just run with it.

Now, the "Easy Knit" took me three months or so to complete. This is primarily due to my work/busy weekend schedule, but I also think I'd knit more on the train now than I used to (knowing when you're likely to bother/distract those around you and how much to care about it - a subject best saved for a separate post, I think!). I simply have to admit that it didn't cross my mind that the duffle coat would take much longer. In actuality, it took me just over five months to finish. Now, it turns out (!) that baby's grow quite a bit in that length of time! Fortunately I had vaguely thought that this might happen and made a size bigger than the one I had initially intended. This obviously would have added to the knitting requirements, but I'm still slightly ashamed of the five months. We eventually gave it as a Christening gift to the baby for whom it was intended.

Anyway, enough of that saga! The wool was lovely to knit with and makes me crave hugs because it's so soft, especially when it's all neatly in a ball. There's also a great choice of colours in this line, and my current, low-priority knitting-on-the-train project is yet another Baby Bamboo pattern in Snuggly DK in a lovely shade of pink.

In the past few months, inspired by the sunshine, I've also managed to find, dust, and set working my sewing machine! I think this is a long enough post for now, though!