At my in-laws, I swatched my new yarn. This is not the most exciting picture, but I always find it interesting to learn others' methods of swatching. Whenever I change to the next needle size, I do YO, K2tog to coordinate with the needle size just used. That way I keep track of what I did later. I used to think I'd remember, but now, with 4 children, I don't take a chance on anything, especially my memory!
I liked the feel of the fabric knit up on size 3 needles at 22 sts to 4 inches, so I immediately cast on for a Cubba hat by Woolly Wormhead, and kitchnered up the top just as we were driving to the airport to fly to Texas.
My only modification is that I made the largest size, but knit it 6" tall instead of 5-1/2". Babies grow so fast; I wanted to make sure that it has a chance of fitting him for the entire season! Also, I knit the I-cord ties to a generous 10-1/2 inches instead of the 8-1/2 in the pattern. I'm not a fan of struggling to tie too-short ties under a drooly, chubby chin.
As always, Woolly Wormhead's designs are as charming to knit as they are to look at. The I-cord ties and earflaps are knit first, separately, then joined with a backwards loop cast-on. After that, the whole thing is knit in the round with no shaping at all. The pattern changes to a diagonal rib of sorts for the body of the hat.
I preferred the way the diagonal rib looked on the inside of the work, so I simply turned it inside-out before kitchnering the top together. The little corner "ears" are just far too precious. Most importantly, Billy can't pull it off of his head, making it a practical choice for stroller walks and bike-rides. It would be very sad to have a handspun, handknit hat go missing.
If you're wondering at this point if there's a possibility of me including too many pictures of the little guy, I will assure you that no:
It is simply not possible.
Find out all of the details that there are to know on the Ravelry page, if you care. :)
