I finally dug the hat out of the pile and finished! Woohoo!

For those who haven’t seen this episode of Knitty Gritty eight thousand times these pieces are knit from a nylon yarn that has a suede texture and a nylon polar fleece with “technofur” yarn that knits up to look and feel a lot like shearling. So I think this is even Vegan? Neat stuff but pretty expensive considering the yardage. Ramona gave me her leftovers from when she made the booties for Isabella which helped a lot (Thanks Mona!) and I found a pretty decent deal on ebay from SuperCrafty. I worried about dye lots but it really wasn’t noticable at all, especially with the plush.

The hat took about three times longer than I thought it would but the booties were pretty easy. The sizing was really off though and I know very little about baby sizes. I made some changes to remedy that though.

The cap is based on this pattern but that one called for it to be knit flat then seamed.

I hate knitting hats this way unless absolutely neccessary (like if I were doing colorwork or a complex construction or something). I did follow the pattern for the body at first but it was way too wide at the bottom and too short for the head.

So I used this pattern for the body of the hat instead, casting on with the plush and knitting a few rows before switching to the suede. I used size nine needles and the size was perfect. I wanted it a little loose because I wanted it flexible enough to be stretchy for the lining.

Then I knit the earflaps on separately, following the original Knitty Gritty Candy Jensen pattern. Rather than knit a three stitch garter with the plush for the ties at the bottom I made 3 stitch i-cords. They’re a lot stronger and more durable which means the little ear flaps can actually be tied together at the top of the hat. Following the original pattern I used a needle and randomly sewed stitches around the edges of the earflaps and sewed them on.

Once the earflaps were sewn on the sides of the hat I picked up the stitches for the front flap using the Plush yarn rather than knit it separately and sew it on so it would fit the hat better. I followed the same decreases as the original pattern though. The top of the front flap was a bit pointy so I curled the top under so it would stick out from the hat a bit then sewed it to the body of the hat.

Then I used Plush to pick up stitches all around the inside brim and knit a smaller version of the hat inside for a liner. Just turned it inside the hat and it was lined!

For the booties I pretty much followed the pattern except I picked up stitches around the inside of the top of the booties with plush and knit small tubes to fit inside as liners.

These booties were really big for baby feet. The liner will make them fit sooner because I don’t think they’re going to be safe or stay on when the baby starts walking. Of course I know very little about these things but I was really worried about it. I know Mona’s solution was to make little i-cord ties and weave them around the body to keep them on and that’s a great idea too! I’d even considered making a corset laceup up the back of the booties to tie them on before I thought of the liner. I’ve heard that putting puff paint from the craft store on the bottom of knit socks will make them non-slip so that’s worth a try too.

So for the booties’ liner I just picked up stitches from the plush around the inside and knit a tube to turn inside. On one I tried to create a sock shape with a heel and everything but it didn’t really make a difference with the elasciticy of the yarn. A plain knit tube works just as well.

I think these are all much, MUCH better with a knit lining, they’ll actually be comfortable, warm, and useful rather than just novelty baby clothing.