Baby needs a new hat

New yarn it is! I was in the neighborhood and had a store credit, so I made a stop into School Products on Saturday and picked up some Karabella Aurora 8. I thought this would be the ideal yarn for a warm winter baby hat because it's merino and soft, yet also washable.

Baby hat - straightforward, yes? Of course I have to make things difficult. First off, I thought I would continue on my tour through tubular cast-ons and use one for this hat. Second, Mama has requested ear flaps. So the initial plan was to do a tubular cast-on using waste yarn and keep the ear flap stitches on the provisional yarn rather than picking them up. Math was done, gauge was guessed, and I was off.

After a few missteps with the cast-on resulting from attempts to watch tv and pick up stitches in dim light at the same time, things were moving along nicely. Per the usual I was a little concerned with the inflexibility of the edge but it seemed serviceable. However, after a few inches I just felt like it was going to be way, way too big. While I was shocked to learn the actual girth of the baby head (did you know they are close to 17" at 5 months?! I have an adult friend with an 18" head! And before you get snarky, she is very smart), this was just too big.

Out it came.



I decided to attempt again with fewer stitches and the Vogue Knitting tubular cast-on "A". Success! The cast-on is less tidy than Amelia's but more flexible and frankly, baby won't mind. I'm loosely basing the rest of the hat on the beanie from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, one of my favorite baby books. I then plan to pick up stitches inside the brim and knit down for some snuggly ear flaps. Stay tuned...