Clearing the backlog #2 - Little Hats

These all started when DD needed a new hat for the winter. She's getting to the stage where she has an opinion about what she wears (especially the colour) and would generally prefer pink. I'd generally prefer anything but pink (especially in large quantities), so I reckoned that a compromise could be reached.

Years ago, I signed up to a Lorna's Laces sock yarn club from Get Knitted for a year. Two skeins every month... and at the very most I've used a couple of those skeins. I keep saving them for special. One of the colourways, Fandango, struck me as the perfect compromise for this hat. It contained pink, but was nicely balanced by purple and a white/pale grey.

I chose the Charlie's Sock Yarn Hat pattern by Aimee Alexander and knitted the toddler size in the round on 3mm needles.

The pompoms were made on my new pompom makers ( I decided that two circles of cardboard like I used to do as a child was way too fiddley for adult fingers, especially when the pompoms are only 1.5 inches in diameter). These pompom makers are definitely the way to go and I now own a collection of them from minute to huge.

Shortly after I made the DD's hat, a good friend of mine had a little boy who obviously needed  a hand-knit hat, so I knit another in the baby size using Regia Galaxy in the Saturn colourway...

and then I made another toddler one in Regia Sock Yarn in the Zanzibar colourway for his big brother who is a little older than DD because his little brother couldn't have all the fun.

This pattern is excellent. It sizes up well, and the turned brim is lovely  and warm over the ears. I also think that it looks better than ribbing. I made a minor modification in that I used a three needle bind-off at the crown instead of lots and lots of kitchener stitch.

Suicide Saxifrage...

... or to put it another way - dyed by my own hand!

Yes, finally, after a couple of years of intending to, I've got round to having a go at dyeing some sock yarn. I bought some undyed Trekking yarn from Get Knitted and spend much time surfing the web looking for protocols to suit.

I decided to go with the food colour paste / vinegar / microwave system as I didn't need anything that would be kept for dyeing only as all reagents were food-grade and the microwave just made things faster.

This was the colour combination I was aiming for: Saxifrage 'pixie'. A grass-green and rose-pink combo.


The method I used was compiled from many different sources so I can't really link it, but if anyone is interested in the details, leave a comment and I'll write up a proper tutorial.

Here are the essentials - plastic bin bag, yarn, nitrile gloves, colour paste, vinegar and cups to mix in.


The dyeing process:


Adding the second colour:


Yarn wrapped and into the microwave:


Rinsing and drying:



The finished product first time round came out more orange than pink so I waited until the yarn was dry and started again, overdyeing the orange. I still didn't get pink, but it's slightly less Irish flag-like now!


Possibly more geranium than saxifrage though...