Baby Tomten and Hat Set

With the 2 girls plus niece (who's staying with us for summer) at home, my sils and I've been running around like mad women, fetching them to this camp and that class. And then naturally, there are the kiddy squabbles that will test anyone's patience. It all boils down to poor planning on the mommys' side, I would say.

So knitting has been happening to me in bits and pieces (and yes, I owe some of you emails, sorry). I'm in a mad rush to finish off as many items as possible to be sent off to Bridget by the beginning of August from my end. And there is just not enough time to do all that I've planned.

There are so many wee patterns out there that I would like to knit, hats, socks, bootees, little jackets, cardigans. The excitement of finding a nice pattern that would work with the yarn on hand, printing it out and then immediately casting it on resulted in a plethora of half finished products that I'm so embarrassed to blog about. I've decided to group things up, so first up is the Baby Tomten and Hat set.

I used the pattern from The Opinionated Knitter by EZ for the Tomten. Sizing in the original pattern is achieved through using different gauge yarns. As I'd wanted to use this particular yarn (worsted weight) in stash for this jacket, I downsized it by casting on 30% less stitches than called for which is both divisible by 4 and 8. The cream-coloured suspender stripes (as Jared called them) are added for fun.

As for the front fastening, I opted the easy way out and made a 2-row garter-stitch button band instead. And used just 3 buttons as Eva (thanks, Eva) suggested. Her Tomten is here.

Now the hat.

I found this pattern, modified it for knitting in the round and then ended changing a few things to to arrive at what it is now. So I thought I would just share how I did it herebelow:

Yarn: Worsted weight yarn in MC and CC
Needles: Clover #7 (4.2 mm) dpns
Pattern: With CC, cast on 54 st, join for knitting in the round. Knit 6 rounds garter stitch (i.e. K1, P1 in the round).
Change to MC. K 3 rounds, P 2 rounds, (K7 rounds, P 2 rounds) 2 times, K6 rounds.
Decrease round 1: (K4, k2tog), repeat to end. K1 round
Decrease round 2: (K3, k2tog), repeat to end. K1 round
Decrease round 3: (K2, k2tog), repeat to end.
Cut yarn and thread through all stitches and pull tight and fasten.
Attach pompom in CC and enjoy.

I almost wanted to cast on for another set but decided to come to my senses and tackle the big pile little WIPs or else the knits won't be able to make it to the UK by end August.

New books/patterns alert: The preview for Rowan 42 and the other new Rowan/RYC books are out but I seem more excited about the new Fall IK and the complimentary Debbie Bliss cardigan pattern on the VK website. What about you?

BTW, I've finally added a photo of the Japanese accessories knitting and crocheting book that I'm destashing. Check it out if you're interested.