Baby Duck Hat and Booties

Little Duck

These baby duck hat and booties were inspired, designed and made for my great little niece, who was born last November.  She is the cute one pictured here.

I actually started designing these patterns well before Christmas, but am just getting around to finishing with all the various sizings now!  Truth is – I tripped myself up a bit by changing yarn half way through the design process (I know, stupid stupid mistake!).  However, I finally just went out and bought a somewhat absurd amount of white and yellow yarn,

Mountain of Booties

and made myself an absolute army of booties (see photo).  And finally I settled on a pattern that I am really happy with.

The hat is pretty easy and straightforward.  The booties are too, and that is what I really like about them.  I found some other patterns online for duck booties, but they were pretty complicated and truth be told, I was feeling a little lazy toward learning new stitches and bind offs….

So instead I invented this pattern, which only uses basic stitches (knit, purl, ssk, k2tog) but creates a really great looking “flipper”.  The booties are worked partly in the round and partly on straight needles.   They do involve a bit of knitting up at the end, but I think the final product is well worth the effort!

My pattern includes 5 different sizes, ranging from preemie to 2 years old and is available as a PDF for $3.00 from my Etsy store by clicking here.  (UPDATE: Pattern is posted below for free). It is a written pattern that is accompanied by LOTS of pictures, making creating these a breeze.

I am also selling the actual knitted items on my Etsy store, so feel free to check those out too!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.  Happy knitting, everyone!

Pattern: Baby Duck Hat and Booties
Cost: $3.00
Where to Download: Duck Booties and Hat Pattern

Mason Jar Cozies

Mason Jar Cozies

At the outset here I should probably mention I knit a lot of things for other people, especially for their birthday’s (you may find there is a trend on this blog…).  So my friend found a prototype of these somewhere on the internet (although I believe they were crocheted) and asked me if I could make some for her for her birthday.

Basically, the idea is you pop them on a mason jar, or old jam jar, etc and then you can use the jar for hot liquids without burning your fingerprints off.  Plus, if your jar has a tight enough fitting lid, you can also throw the whole thing into your purse/man bag and not worry about spills on the way to work.

Cozies

My friend asked for a specific grey colour that I no longer own (and because I live abroad I couldn’t even buy more of it without some huge hassle), so I went with some graduated colours of grey that I thought were quite nice.

Here is a photo of them not on the jam jars (right).  You’ll notice they look TINY.  Well, I tried one prototype first, which I thought was going to be a perfect size (and truthfully it does fit, but feels a bit like my jam jar had lypo-suction and the knitted ‘skin’ had

First Prototype vs. Final Product

been left hanging…) but realized something with a tighter fit was much nicer (see right bottom for difference between the prototype and final product).  So here is the pattern I ended up using:

For a 500 mL Mason Jar

Needle size: 5mm dpn’s
Yarn: Lana Gatto Super Soft (fingering) in 3 shades of grey and a white
Gauge: 8 sts x 14 rows in moss stitch = 2 inch square

Make Bottom:

CO 6 sts and join in the round

1. knit (6)
2. *k1, m1* to end of round (12)
3, 4, 5. knit (12)
6. *k1, m1* to end of round (24)
7, 8, 9. knit (24)
10. *k1, m1* to end of round (48)
11. knit
12. Bind off

Make Sides:
1. Pick up 29 sts and knit in moss stitch
2-36. Knit for a total of 36 rows (or until desired height is reached)
37. Work one round decrease: k2tog every 6th stitch (stitches 5 & 6) [except for last stitch where you decrease at stitches 4 & 5]
38. Bind off using Russian Lace Bind Off

Tie knot, weave in ends.

(Russian Lace Bind Off – *p2tog, loosen purled stitch and slip back onto left needle* repeat until all but one stitch remains.  Cut yarn and pull through last stitch.)

Cozies on Jars

More Pictures

Here are the remaining pictures I promised… I think my favourite has to be Cookie Monster.  Probably because of the colours!

 

Although Big Bird is a REALLY close second.  For Big Bird, I just looped some yarn through at the “crown” of his head (knotting it each time at the back) for his feathers.  I thought this would be nicer than knitting them on flat.

Big Bird

Cookie Monster

Bert and Ernie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo here of Bert and Ernie is a bit weird, I must admit.  Ernie looks a tad more orange here than he is in real life, and as such you can’t really make out his nose and mouth.

I should also mention that I took all these photos before blocking, so they still look a bit…. “rolly”.

 

Happy Knitting, everyone!  Please contact me if you have any problems with or questions about the charts.

Here is the link to the previous post with the patterns for all these (plus Elmo and Oscar)

Sesame Street Intarsia Charts

Elmo

***Patterns and Knitting info found at bottom of post***

In a couple months my nephew is turning 2 years old. As with most 2 year olds (I gather), he really loves Sesame Street right now. Currently, his two favourite shirts have Oscar and Elmo on them and my sister tells me they never even make it back into his drawer; every time he sees they’re clean, that is what he picks to wear. As such, when I was trying to decide what to make him for his birthday, my first thought was of Sesame Street.

I found a really great idea in Debbie Stoller’s Stitch ‘N Bitch: Superstar Knitting that I thought would be absolutely perfect.  It’s Rain O’Brien’s pattern for “Button It!” (in the patterns section of the book).  The idea is you knit several “patches” with button holes in the four corners, then sew four buttons onto a shirt.  You are then able to add and remove the patches as you wish.  Meaning: depending on how many patches you make, you basically get a new shirt for everyone one.  In my case, I’m knitting my nephew 5 Sesame Street patches, meaning five different shirts for him.

O’Brien’s pattern also included a knit sweater, however I am going to skip this and simply buy a plain white/beige/black t-shirt and sew the buttons on to that.  This is firstly because I’m lazy and don’t want to knit a whole sweater, secondly because I live far away from my nephew and so can’t measure him easily, and thirdly because I like the wear-ability and wash-ability of cotton t’s.  I am thinking I might do up a sweatshirt or long sleeved shirt with buttons, too.  His birthday is in May, so it’s an awkward time of year in Canada, weather wise.

Oscar the Grouch

To make the patterns for the patches, I put some photos from the internet through GIMP, made the canvas size to be 30 x 34 pixels (the number of stitches I wanted) and then spent a decent amount of time “fixing” the photos.  I then created the charts in Word.

I’ve included them here in PDF form as a free download.  I wish you all happy knitting, and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

More pictures to come…

PDF Intarsia Chart for Elmo

PDF Intarsia Chart for Oscar the Grouch

PDF Intarsia Chart for Big Bird

PDF Intarsia Chart for Bert and Ernie

PDF Intarsia Chart for Cookie Monster

Knitting Specs

Yarn: Lana Gatto Super Soft (50g for 125m; 100% extra fine merino wool)

Needles: 4mm; US size 6

Size of Finished Product: 44 stitches by 50 rows = 8 x 7 inches (length x height)