Little Sprout hat

It always feels like an accomplished sort of weekend when you publish something – not a poem this time, but a knitting pattern. Five of my coworkers have babies now (well, four do and one is working on it); the oldest is just over a year and I’ve clearly been slacking in the baby knitting department. Having just finished my Primrose Path sleeveless sweater (now blocking for the second time, in hopes I can get it a little smaller as it stretched out to become not only loose but see-through the first time. grr) this seemed like a good time to embark on a blitz of knitting quick and tiny things.

The first hat was going to be the Umbilical Cord Hat from Deb Stoller’s first Stitch ‘N Bitch book (like these), but first I had to change the number of stitches cast on to account for the yarn I wanted to use, and then I had to change the decrease pattern since I had fewer rows per inch … and then I was working on the i-cord at the top when the green color spoke up and insisted it wanted a leaf rather than a top-knot. With so many changes in such a basic hat, I decided it probably constituted a new pattern, wrote it up and published it as a free Ravelry download. I’ve called it the Little Sprout hat.

Now I’m halfway done a lace hat in a rich fuschia color, for a year-old baby girl whose parents seem to like extremely girly clothes for her. Then I have to make something for a boy and a girl who are each a little over a month old, then something for the one still in utero. I haven’t decided whether all of these will be hats or if I’ll branch out into eensy socks – I have lots of washable sock yarn leftovers, but I’m never quite sure about wool for babies. Still, a lot of it is not itchy stuff. I also have leftover mercerized cotton from a multicolor baby blanket, and I’m thinking maybe I’ll make a sort of jester hat for one of them – square floppy corners, maybe short little tassels.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

small favor

ETA: Please disregard request below; people have commented with some extremely useful links:

http://www.yarnstandards.com/babysize.html (clothing measurements for knitters)
http://www.yarnstandards.com/childsize.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/growthcharts/charts.htm (gov’t standards including head circumference)

Thanks!

Hey, for future knitting purposes, could those of you who have kids (or who are around kids often) do me a favor? I am interested in measurements of heads (for hats) and feet (for socks). The problem with not having kids of my own is that I really don’t have a good feeling for how big they are at different ages. I know it varies of course, but then knitting stretches.

What I need are quick measurements around the circumference of the head and/or length of feet and width at their widest point – if it’s easier, use a circumference of the foot, just tell me which. There’s no need to be painstakingly precise, just reasonably accurate; as I say, knitting stretches. I also need the age of the child. I’m mostly interested in babies up to say age 10. (I don’t need the children’s names, though: this is statistics, and I do not want to violate their privacy. Anonymous comments are fine too.) If I get more than a couple of replies, I will create a spreadsheet and share it here, for the convenience of other crafters. I’ll include averages too, if I get more than one answer per a given age.

Thanks in advance!!

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.