BABY HATS WITH WAVY LINES

There are two adorable new baby girls in our church, and they looked like they had cold heads, so I resolved to make them hats. But I forgot, and now the winter is half over. So they will get toddler hats to fit them next winter. That's the joy of knitting for children: they grow in, they outgrow. As long as you make something bigger than they are at present, it will fit them eventually. For a while. And hopefully they won't grow in and out during warm weather.

The hat above is a classic lace pattern called "Feather and Fan", free pattern available HERE. It is an easy knit, and constructed from brim to crown, in the classic way. I made it in the round, so it would be seamless, and changed to the white yarn for Rows (Rounds) 5 and 6 to emphasize the wavy lines.

Now, what to do for the second hat... wavy lines are cool. I like wavy lines. I ran across this enchanting pattern for the "Bon-bon Bowler" hat by Susan Z. Douglas, published in Tops with a Twist, book available HERE. The construction of this hat is completely different. It is made one section at a time, kind of like a pie, and grafted together. The wavy lines are made as cables (crossed stitches). This seemed like a fun challenge, and I tried to make the cables stand out with contrasting yarn.


Of course I had to use thinner yarn and smaller needles to scale it down to baby size. Then I ran into problems because the scaling-down process didn't work quite right, and the shape turned out really wacky: way too big in circumference (17") and too short in the crown (4.5"). I should have added at least two more inches to the crown. I compensated for the weird fit by not hemming the brim, and adding ties so it would have a chance of staying on a toddler's head. Maybe it will work. You never know with toddlers. Mine were notorious for ripping off whatever clothing they could- socks, shoes, hats, mittens- and throwing them in inconvenient places. You can always try.

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