Did you know there was an earthquake yesterday?

It happened at about 1:45am. Yeah, I got the notification yesterday morning in my email but that's not how I knew about it. I knew 'cause I felt it. I was just getting to bed. You know why I was just getting to bed?




If you guessed because I was obsessively finishing the second version of the world's cutest baby hat, (blue brimmed version above) you would be correct! (Apologies to my married or out-of-town friends who live under this thin veil of illusion that I live this glamorous L.A. single girl life, though stay tuned for my pole dancing public service announcement coming up next!)

Anyways, back to the world's cutest baby hat. Seriously, my pictures don't do it justice. (Though the folks at Knitty did a damn fine job photographing it!) But, let me tell you, it really is the world's cutest baby hat.

Seriously.

Anyways, this was made from all sorts of yarn I have. As the pattern calls for double strands of 100% superwash merino wool, I sort of improvised as I don't really knit with superwash merino wool...I mean, that would be too easy.

Hat with Lime brim:

Lime: Baby Alpaca I picked up at my first crafty yard sale last year; fingering weight bordering on thread so I put 5 strands together.
Blue: Suss 100% wool (discontinued, though I will be at their sale on Saturday, 10/20/07, 9am - 4pm at 117 N. Gardner St., LA, CA 90036 - email me if you want a copy of the announcement) doubled.
Light Blue: Baby Alpaca I picked up at the yard sale listed above, again 5 strands together.
Yellow: I used the two yellows I dyed at Urban Craft Center, 100% wool, fingering weight, one strand each.
Turquoise: I used one strand of my latest creation of Kool Aid died Yarn, 100% wool, worsted weight.
Purple: 100% wool Bulky weight gifted from Melissa in her move to L.A.
Pink: Baby Alpaca...ok, you already know...same craft sale, same strands.

So yeah, point being, as long as you stay away from the bulky weights (I know I cheated but for that purple purl row it just worked for me) you really can use any yarn. Let me rephrase that, depending on the baby for whom you're making this hat, you can use any yarn. This hat is heading to Minneapolis where they actually dress children in wool to keep warm so I wasn't worried about offending a new California mom by presenting a wool infused hat. But, let me tell you between the happy personality of the hat, the super soft Alpaca and the smell of the Kool Aid and natural dyed yarns, these hats are among my favorite things I've made.

Random Knitting Things You Should Know for This Pattern:

Knitting on Circular Needles: I prefer circulars to DPNs but that's just me. I did 80% of the larger hat on the circulars and flipped over to 3 DPNs to finish it.
Knitting on Double Pointed Needles: If you know the theory of DPNs, you're all good. I had never really made anything on DPNs before and this was super easy. The Blue hat was just too wee for the circulars so I used all of the DPNs in the set (5?) for this hat. The hardest thing for me was to find one of the needles when I'd put my knitting down to pet a neglected bread-stealing greyhound.
I-cord: Anything with the word idiot in the title is easy.

According to Regina, I did Fair Isle which I've never tried before. (Good thing the author didn't mention that or else I would have been too scared to try the pattern.) I've never knitted a hat on double pointed needles and I've never done that flower on the top before. And, let me tell you, out of all the things I did for the first time on the hats, that little @$%^#$ flower was my nemesis. Ug, you're at the END and it looks so easy in the pattern and yet its not WORKING. But, its fine, I now understand how to do it and its all good. I'm ok. Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts. Vacation, Hawaii, cruise to the Panama Canal....