Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed (you won’t need very much so it’s great for using up odd bits of stash)

Needle: 3.75mm or whatever you need to get gauge

Gauge: 22st per 4″ x 32 rows per 4″ (though row gauge is less important to be honest)

Size: Newborn to 5 months? (I’ll know better in a few months time when no2 arrives. :)

Important Measurements (useful for if you’re planning to knit it in a different weight, or if you can’t get gauge):

Cast on length = 13 1/2″

Height of main body of the bonnet = 5″

Length of each section when you start the back of the bonnet (and start gobbling up the side stitches) = Slightly more than 1/3, slightly less than 1/3, slightly more than a 1/3 (same number as the first section.)

Length of the middle back at the bottom (after your decreases along the length of the bottom): 3″

(I hope that all makes sense.)

(Tiny hat on a big noggin. :)

Pattern:

Cast on 74st and knit in garter stitch until you have 3 bump rows.

Continue in st st until the piece measures 5″ in length from cast on. (Obviously you can add any pattern embelishments that you like in this section. You could even add a steek and do some colour work – you would cut the steek at the end and then add the lower garter band on – I will hopefully try this very soon.)

End the main section at the end of a purl row.

K 27st then place marker. K 20 then place another marker. SSK then turn work and slip the stitch you just knit. Continue purling back along the row till you get to the stitch after the marker. P2tog then turn work again, and slip the stitch you just purled together. This has completed one pair of rows.

Repeat back and forth, SSK or P2tog the stitches after each marker. You are gobbling up a stitch either side of the middle section every two rows, creating a neat 90 degree turn that will be the back of the bonnet.

On the 8th, 16th and 24th pair of rows decrease two stitches from the middle section. (You can count the larger stitches where the side stitches meet the back section to keep track of how many pairs of rows you have done – since there is one larger stitch at either side for each pair of rows.)

(I decreased a stitch just before the side stitch at either side, by k2tog on the right side, and PSSK on the wrong side, but whatever works for you.)

Carry on till all the side stitches are gobbled up. Break yarn but keep the live stitches on the needle.

With the right side facing you, pick up and knit stitches along the bottom of the hat. You will knit the live stitches as you come to them. K 1 stitch per garter stitch bump, then 1 stitch every 2 st st rows (21 stitches approx. till you get to the live stitches at the middle), K all the live stitches, then carry on with 1 stitch every 2 st st rows, and finally 1 stitch every garter stitch bump at the other end. (60st in total – approx.)

In garter stitch, knit till you have 3 garter stitch bump rows on the wrong side, then cast off. This will make the third garter stitch bump on the right side. Don’t pull the yarn through the final stitch.

Instead pick up and knit two additional stitches above the final stitch and use them as the basis for an I-cord tie. Knit the I-cord to about 6″ in length (or whatever length you prefer.)

Pick up three stitches at the opposite edge of the bonnet and make a second I-cord tie.

Weave in all your ends and block.

Then go for a walk with your newly warm-headed baby. :)

It seems to me that I can wait until no2 is born (in 3 1/2 months) and post pretty pictures of their tiny head in this bonnet – made harder by the fact there will be a newborn in the house – or I can post less flattering pictures of it now, and get the pattern out while it’s all fresh in my mind.

Therefore be prepared for less-than-brilliant pictures. (Hopefully I’ll repost the pattern in the autumn, once things have settled down. Either way, it’s a free pattern.)

A Simple Bonnet that I haven’t got a name for yet: by Katie Hanrott

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed DK (

You need left overs. I knit this one with about 2/3 of a ball, and I still have a decent amount left. If you bought a ball, and just did the bonnet plain, you could probably knit 3 from the one ball – though I haven’t tried that. I’m just guessing. Felted Tweed goes along way.

Needle: 3.75mm (A lovely, 40cm pointy knit picks.)

Size: I think it’s sort of new born to 5(ish) months. But then our family have big heads. I based the sizing on other existing bonnet patterns, but I won’t know for sure till no2 arrives in the autumn.

Once it was dry and I was photographing it FB was all ‘hat! hat!’ hence the illfitting modelling.  W wants to know if I’m planning to make FB a smock, for the full pilgrim look. ;)

Here you can (sort of) see the construction at the back. I’m finding it very satisfying, having the flap gobble up the stitches at either side to make the shaping. It makes the whole thing sprint along which is just what you need with a baby knit.

And now he’s off.

I have a second version of the bonnet on my needles at the moment, (I’ve just started the back flap.) Things are going to be utterly nuts here at the weekend, as we rush around getting things sorted for the move on monday, but if I can get this second one knit up, I might be able to get the pattern on the blog before we move (and lose our internet connection till they set us up with a new one. Hopefully relatively quickly.)

So the pattern is on it’s way…

Aurantium Blossom by Alice Yu
My Ravelry Post: here
Yarn: Oxford Kitchen Yarns Sock Yarn in Antique Ribbon (1 skein) and a small amount of Raspberry for the border (because I decided half way through to knit the larger shawl.)
Needles: 4.5mm addi lace. <3
Notes: This shawl really grows. I’ve been knitting lace for about 6 years now, and usually I’m pretty calm about knowing they’ll turn out ok, but the complexity of the stitches meant that the shawl felt really bunched right up until it hit the water. Then it really did blossom, and turn into something larger, and more beautiful.

I love that lace is still surprising. I guess it always will be. :)

I finally got to give it to my sister on sunday, when they came over. A belated, but hopefully useful birthday present.

(Blurry evening photo.)

The blanket is nearly done – I just need to do a sewn bind off, which to be honest, I’m putting off a bit. Not because it’s massively tricky (though I will have to look up how to do it again) but because there is so much going on here for the move, that I need something mindless when I’m knitting.

Thus I have started a bonnet for no2, which somehow, despite everything, I’m galloping through. Hopefully it’ll turn out the same as it looks in my head, and I’ll write up the pattern and stick it up here in case anyone else wants to make one. :)

(It amuses me that my palm seems to be a stand in for my child’s head!)

When I went to London a few weeks ago, I bought some Rowan Lima to make a blanket ready for No2 when they come along. It’s incredible stuff – light and fluffy (because it’s chained) but it’s also going to be lovely and warm because of all the alpaca in it.

I couldn’t pick just one colour, so I ended up with 6, and I’m making a striped version of Pine Forest Baby Blanket (Ravelry Link).

It was perfect knitting for while we were away – mindless but not boring, and with a yarn that was airy enough to cope when it got hot. I’m on my 4th colour, and I’m just working out whether it’s going to be big enough. (I want it to be the same size as the one I knit for FB, since it has proved wonderfully useful, even now.)