Grading Hats

When I write a hat pattern, I like to make sure it can be made for just about any size head. I notice this is something not all designers do. Quite often, patterns will be for one size only (e.g. average woman’s size) and I wonder whether there is much value-added if I produce a hat in a range of sizes? Do people actually want hats scaled for babies all the way up to adults? Certainly, if a stitch pattern doesn’t allow for small grade changes, fewer sizes might be appropriate. Usually though, stitch patterns just aren’t that big or can be tweaked to accommodate patterns with a range of sizes.
Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear what you think.

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Kildare Beret in size Women’s (22 inch)
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Kildare Beret in size New born (12 inch)

Here is a table of my existing hats (7 different patterns) and the sizes they are written for.

On average, the circumference of a head of a Baby (Toddler, Child, S Adult [Teen], M Adult [Woman], L Adult [Man]) is 14 (16, 18, 20, 22, 24) inches or 35.5 (40.5, 46, 51, 56, 61) cm

Hat Pic Pattern Name Sizes in Pattern
P9010109_medium2 Kildare Beret New born, Baby, Child, Small Adult, Woman, Man
PB090126_a_medium2 Roxbourne New born (Baby, Child, Young Adult, Woman, Man)
PC150123_small2 Uppingham Hats (2 hats in 1 pattern) New born (Baby, Child, Young Adult, Woman, Man)
petals_and_plaid_hat_small2 Petals And Plaid Hat Newborn (baby, child, Adult S, Adult M, Adult L)
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Abbye Hat Preemie, (New Born, Baby, Toddler, Child, Woman)
image_small2 Loom Band Hat Baby (Child, Teen, Woman, Man) To fit head circumference: 15.25 (18, 20.75, 22, 25.25)in/39 (45.5, 52.5, 56, 64.5)cm
Corona Beret Corona Beret Baby (Toddler, Child, Small Adult, Medium Adult, Large Adult)
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Loom Bands in your Knitting? Whatever Next?

Hello!
You may have noticed I’ve gone loom band crackers the last little while… Well I just released a quick, fun hat pattern that incorporates loom bands into the fabric.

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The pattern is called simply “Loom Band Hat” and is available to download now from Ravelry for £2

 

To make it you need 100g Aran yarn, 300 loom bands and size 5 and 4.5mm needles. The hat is sized from baby to adult, so you can make one for everyone in the family, not just your staker-boi niece!

I made a video showing how to knit with loom bands and the other day I uploaded a photo tutorial on how to make a wool and loom band pom pom.

I’d love to see what unusual things you do with loom bands. Post below by September 5th and I’ll pick a winner of a free copy of the pattern.

Xxx e

Abbye Cardigan and Hat

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALast October, @edencottage tweeted that they had some free tickets for the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching show. All I had to do was RT. I nabbed the last one, I think. Lo and behold, the day arrived and I tripped along to the show armed with business cards and golden bribes (aka honeycomb, one of my few culinary successes). I had a great time meeting the yarnies that I had been in contact with over the year; and tried to put names to the faces of people who had provided me with yarn support. I also stopped by the Eden Cottage booth to thank them for the free ticket. Victoria and David were there and we got to chatting about my designs.

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I followed up some time later with a proposal for a girl’s cardigan and Victoria very generously sent on some Bowland DK in a lovely soft colour, “Driftwood”.20140326-165625.jpg

 

I had a whole bunch of commissions for various publishers on all Winter, but I tried to work on Abbye when I could. The next trick was to find a model! Oh my goodness I don’t know what was in the water around North West London about a year and a half ago, but there were hardly any babies of the right age in my circles, or even extended circles! It actually took so long to find one that the ones I dismissed at the beginning of the project for being too small had grown into it!

So my friends loaned me their precious bundle for half an hour, and she was a dote. Not a peep out of her even though I was constantly fidgeting at the cardi and the poor mite was teething. We had a lot of tongue shots!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I posted the patterns last night, and they got some attention. Then this morning I woke up to the hat in the top 5 and IT’S BEEN THERE ALL DAY! It’s so exciting, I’ve been sitting here for ages just hitting refresh on the hot right now home page. Well that, and writing this blog, but you know what I mean. Right now it’s at number 2. Can you believe it? And the cardigan’s at number 15! And the lovely comments are so heartening. I am reminded once again of what a lovely community knitters make.hrn2_19

Abbye Hat is free for the time being; once interest tapers off a bit I’ll charge £1.25 for it.

Abbye Cardigan is available to buy for £3.75, and the hat is included.

Roxbourne

Well, it’s live! My first pattern for sale that I’ll actually earn money from! (Fingers crossed) (and toes and legs and hair and teeth)

 

 

Roxbourne Hat, now available for download!
Roxbourne Hat, now available for download!

My Son’s Pirate Hat

Ooh, my heart is all gooey and melty. My little boy, 2½, hasn’t taken his new pirate hat off since I finished it for him. Part of that is because I’ve been putting it on him at every available opportunity so I can get a decent picture for the pattern, but mostly it’s because he reckon’s he’s dead cool in it. I’m sure the warmth and softness of the Fyberspates Scrumptious it’s made from isn’t hurting either!

Jake and the Neverland Pirates has been a firm favourite, and some of his first phrases were “ah, coconuts!” and “grab ‘em and go!” (looong emphasis on the “go!”, also accompanied by much running around in circles, fist upraised). Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly have also featured pirates at some point, so it’s no wonder he’s taken with them.

Beloved Pirate Hat

Today as he was cuddling his hat in bed, and he looked up at me and said “Mummy make it? Mummy knit it for me? Sank you, Mummy.” and I just puddled. Love you, baby bear.

The pattern is called Roxbourne, coming soon!. Arrrrr!

Kildare Beret

Kildare Beret - Back View

My first self-published design is up on rav!

Buy the Kildare Beret pattern through Ravelry!

This is the hat that I designed in the WoollyWormhead hat design workshop, so I’m uncomfortable about accepting money for it. On the other hand, I put a lot of work into it, so  I don’t want to give it away either. Greater exposure or not! So therefore I’m putting it up for sale, but I’m giving all proceeds to Tommy’s, who will make better use of it than I.

Tommy’s funds research into pregnancy problems and provides information to parents. We believe it is unacceptable that one in four women will lose a baby during pregnancy and birth.

I learned to knit when I was first expecting. Unfortunately, the pregnancy turned out to be what the docs call a “blighted ovum”, as my husband and I found out at the 12-week scan. Afterwards I was astounded by the number of women around me that had also had miscarriages. How come it’s not talked about? J and I felt like we were all alone in the world at the time. I finished knitting the little baby blanket I had started and my daughter has it on her bed now.