Spinning Memories - Knitting Love: Birthday Hat

This post might be a little confusing. But, as I mentioned in this post, I have been working all year long on Christmas presents. I have finished 3 of the 4 fair isle hats on my list, for our 4 youngest grandsons, all brothers. I got out the yarn to begin the fourth one on Thursday evening - for the 3 year old, the "baby of the family."

Well, before that, earlier in the week, I had gotten an invitation to the 1st birthday party of my good friend, Catie's, youngest - to be held on Sunday afternoon, after church. I had thought about making him a hat, too, but talked myself out of it because I didn't really know what size to make and I wasn't sure I'd have time. The yarns for our grandson's hat were two Red Heart acrylic yarns because I wanted Mom to be able to throw it in the washer and dryer. The contrast color in the hat would be black so it didn't ~~get~~ show dirt on it.

As I began knitting with all that color, I kept thinking about how Catie often says that she loves COLOR, all colors. I finally convinced myself that I'd have time to do her little one a hat like the one I'd started for grandson, if I hustled. But I had already started. aarrgghh About noon on Friday I got the "brilliant" idea (we'll see how brilliant) to use my yarn winder and wind up a ball of each color, starting with the opposite end of yarn that I had started the first hat with, which I did, rather painlessly. I still needed to decide what size needles, how many stitches to cast on, etc. for the second hat. Both boys have "good sized heads," one being 3 and one being 1. I wasn't even certain I had grandson's figured correctly.

I was using my 16" circulars for the first hat and they seemed a bit long for even that one so I decided to use the 9" circulars for the one year old's hat. Do you know how short the actual needles are on 9" circulars? Let me tell you, they are short.

And using them began to hurt my old hands. And the more I knitted on that little hat, the more I thought it was too small. I kept hoping that it would be bigger when it was off those tiny needles.

So by Friday around 1:00, I had about 2 inches of hat #2 done. BUT then Catie and I began texting about when she might be able to come over and give our dog a much-needed grooming. And, wouldn't ya know, the best time we came up with was Friday evening. Soooo I had to bathe the dog and blow dry her to get her ready. Hubby & I got supper out while we did some errands in town.

In preparation for Catie coming, I had to hide both hats and all 4 balls of yarn without tangling them. I put them under a blanket on a chair and put a throw pillow on top of that. When Catie finished grooming the dog and because her children were all in bed with her husband "minding their homestead," she stayed and visited for a long while. We have been aching to have some time to visit but this evening I had knitting for her son in the back of my mind. :)

After she left, I decided to pull an all-nighter. Well, not like the all-nighters I pulled in college to cram for exams. More like an old woman's all-nighter, which was until about 12:30. I just had to finish that hat by Saturday night so it would be blocked for Sunday afternoon. And, you know, after I crawled into bed, I think I dreamed all ~~night~~ morning about knitting. And I think Catie was in my dreams, too.

However, very soon into my all-nighter, I realized that the first hat, the one for grandson, was going to be a better size for the little 1 year old than the second hat I'd started. So that's what I focused on late Friday night. When I got up Saturday morning, I had the primary, large design section finished. That got me only a few rows from the decrease rows.

Shortly after I got into the decrease section, The multi-colored yarn had a knot in it from the factory, joining a new length of yarn - GOING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. I couldn't believe that. It wasn't a simple "get to the same place in the color scheme and resume. It was going the opposite direction! Good ol' Red Heart! So I had to cut the smaller hat (hat #2) off its yarn and use that end to resume the yarn color pattern. grrrr But, on the bright side, I was able to do some necessary de-tangling that had occurred from trying to hide the masterpiece from Catie! And maybe from having 2 projects going on the same yarn at the same time.

Well, I guess, if I ever finish that smaller hat for a tiny baby, I'll just have a couple more ends to weave in. But on the other hand, what mother of a new born would ever put those colors on her new bundle!! In fact, I had begun to second guess my color selection for Catie's little one. Oh well, if she loves colors, ALL colors, that's what she's gettin'!

I finished the hat Saturday afternoon, in time to get up and prepare dinner. And got it blocking after the dishes were washed.

So everything was in order for the party, the little books I got him, the singing card, and the hat, originally meant for grandson. I do know now that I need to make grandson's bigger. AND the hat for my friend's son did fit him. And she said she likes the colors! But I'm not sure she would have said anything else. We'll see if I ever see him in it.