The time has finally come to replace the winter hat that had become his trademark for the last two years. I wanted to use brown to highlight his big, beautiful, brown eyes, delicately rimmed with long lashes… so very like his daddy’s. The wool I ordered was not at all what I thought it would be, but I’ve come to like it anyway. And I mixed in a bit of chocolate brown that I had left over from the Sparrow to get more of the “brown-ness” I was going for.

I’m honestly not sure what pattern I used, as the book has long been returned to the library. I think that it may have been Kristin Nicholas and Melanie Falick’s “Knitting for Baby”, but don’t quote me on that. Whatever pattern it was, it only came in baby-baby sizes, so it needed some adjusting in circumference. I opted to add additional height as well so that I could felt it for extra warmth. His old hat was so very thick and warm, it’s a tough act to follow! I sewed the (unfelted) ear-flaps on after the fact and then lined the whole thing with an organic rib knit.

My little guy has taken to carrying his little wool bunny around in the front flap of his sweater. He says it’s his sling. Love that.

In anticipation of questions about how to line a knit hat, I’m just going to direct you over to Grace’s right now, as she has a highly detailed post on that very subject, including pictures and anything else you could possibly want to know.

The lining took me longer then I expected, but I think that is because I am slow at hand sewing and I was being overly anal about the size and gauge of said stitches.

At one point, when I had to abruptly leave the room to fetch something, I came back to find a certain little person had retrieved my work and was putting in an earnest attempt at finishing the job. While his wild, every-which-way stitches were absolutely adorable, in the end, I decided that it was probably best to pull them out and continue with my boring old methodical ones. But first I set him up with the scrap of fabric that happened to be in my knitting bag and a large doll-making needle…

I’m not sure exactly what they are, but I do know that they required quite a bit of careful measuring with my measuring tape, followed by much consideration of the information provided there in, “hmm, four, eight, semen…hmmm…” (btw, semen? In this case it is pronounced exactly like SEVEN only with an M instead of a V. NOT the other pronounciation, which my babyland brain didn’t even consider at first!) And that if everyone in the world took as much pride in their work as this boy does, then I think life would be quite different. As he gleefully announced to his brothers when they walked in, “I doin’ *my* work!”