Polar Bear Knit Hat

Delta Polar Bear Napkins source

The inspiration:
I was flying back from my friend Sarah's wedding a few weeks ago. When the flight attendant handed me my drink, the accompanying napkin was none other than the Coca Cola polar bear theme. I thought, "Wouldn't that make a cute baby hat!"

After finishing some other hats (cat hat, Bird-dog hat, pottery hat, and Football hat), I was all set to begin this hat.  Luckily, I was also home for Thanksgiving and my 8-month-old niece Quinn nearby so I could make sure I got the fit right. The hat pattern is written for her (17" head size) but would stretch to fit most babies from 6 months to 1+ year. It is very easy to make the hat larger for older kids or smaller for infants by changing the number of stitches cast on. Click here for the pattern. For a tutorial on embroidering the eyes, click here.

Knit Cat Hat

 We did Thanksgiving at Christmas for half of the family this year so I have been very busy designing and making hats for the fam.  I made this hat for my 3-year-old niece who loves kitties.  I used a lilac purple for the hat and cream for the kitties.

The pattern for the hat is found here and information about the pattern is here.  It is relatively simple and uses color work.  If you need to learn how to switch colors, here is a good tutorial for color work.  I considered embroidering on cat eyes, nose, and whiskers, but I thought it looked good without those embellishments.

I made this hat almost entirely on my 5 hour ride home for Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for more patterns for my stocking hat gifts!

Mario Knit Hat and Mitten set

This hat and mittens pattern is one of my favorite designs.  I found a cool Nintendo-themed Hat in the Holly Knit! blog and thought the design was so cool that I decided to adapt it into my own pattern for a hat and mittens.  This makes the perfect gift for that gaming nerd (don't take me the wrong way, this is an affectionate term!). 

A pattern for the hat can be found here (information about the pattern is here), and a pattern for mittens is here.  

Both patterns require two-color strand work.  If you have never done strand work before, it is very easy, just add on the second color when ready for it (I tie it to the current color I am working with, very close to where that yarn meets the knitted project) and knit with one color while holding the other color to the back.  Then when doing your pattern, simply switch colors when needed.  Because this pattern has quite a few long patches (more than three stitches) with one color, you should twist the color you are holding back around the working color every few stitches to maintain some stretch in the hat and keep the non-worked color from being too taut.  Here is a good online tutorial for strand work.  I learned how to do strand work in Hat Heads which also has a lot of good tips for making hats and creating your own designs.

Also, for the hat, I cannot remember exactly how I decreased, but I know I started out decreasing between the star points and then from the apex of the star once I was finished with the yellow.  I plan to make another hat this Spring, and I will make the pattern more accurate then, but if you are following the pattern and have any problems with the decreasing, feel free to ask. :)

I am posting the mittens as a pattern for regular mittens, but they can easily be altered to mittens with flaps.

Click here to see Version 2 of the Mario Knit Hat: