Home-Made Holidays--Hats!

This year we went the (cheap) no, (easy) definitely no, lets say 'homemade' route for most of our Christmas gifts.

I have made dozens of baby hats during my down time over the summer and fall season. Pretty much everyone with a baby or kid in our life got a hat for Christmas. The hat pattern is a hand written (and long since memorized) one from my Aunt. It starts with about an inch of 2x2 ribbing then stockinette stitch for a few inches then decreases with k2tog every (8, 7, 6, 5 etc) stitches. I'll write it out better later in another post. The hats started out simple one color jobs, then I got fancy with an owl cable pattern, then I started adding stripes, then even started adding color work. The pattern is easy enough that I can bang one out in about 2 hours of dedicated knitting time. Car rides, jury duty, oil changes, doctor visits, plane trips... all prime knitting time for these easy gifts.



Here is boy modeling one of the cabled owl hats


Here are some friends of our modeling their Christmas hats--and headbands. I realized the day before gift time that two hats were not going to happen, so the girls got head bands. I think it is better that way, they have beautiful hair and a hat would only hide it.




Over 14 hats have been gifted so far! I guess I need to develop a 'handmade by Sandra" label for them. Possibly with washing instructions, since kids tend to be messy.

Teal owl hat--Laura
Dark Blue Owl hat --Asa
grey, white, purple --Bradley
grey, white, purple stripe Ryder
Purple horse hat -- Camden
pink seed stitch band -- Kelsely
purple 2x2 ribbing band --Raelyn
Cranberry with white heart -- Maddy
grey, white, cranberry -- Brett
Green owl hat -- Carter
White with blue snowflake -- baby Brooks
Grey owl hat -- Tyler
Pink snowflake hat -- Angela
Pale pink owl with rhinestone eyes -- Lily
Pale pink tie up earwarmer -- Grandma Hannah
Purple tie up earwarmer -- Candye

Lily's pale pink owl hat with rhinestone eyes

Here is the gift list that I remember... my plan is to maybe next year make matching mittens or scarves for the kids. Hmm, that is if the hat will still fit next year and has not been lost. I know my kids have lost hats already. In fact, I 'found' one of my own hand knit hats in the church parking lot more than a week after boy dropped it.

I guess the hat maddness started back in August with this attempt at a hunting hat for my hubby.



"Lucky Deer Hat"

This hat never made it off the needles, it was waaay too big and ended up frogged and reknit twice before I gave up on it entirely. Knitting for hubby is impossible for me for some reason. I actually made him another hat for his trip to London and it ended up not quite right for him. A little too short and 'not full enough" so it was regifted to someone with a small head.