It’s Pumpkin (Hat Knitting) Season Again

I’m in the doghouse tonight for missing National Dog Day and my DIL sent a photo of Henry (the Airedale) and the new Airedale puppy, Josie coming home to their house next week. Her plan was I could make up for my omission of the family dogs on the blog today. Laura sent me a photo of Penny (the goldendoodle) on the couch looking glum cause I didn’t feature them on the blog for National Dog Day.  Who knew?  On to what I was planning to blog…..even thought it’s still August for a few more days.

People, including Fallon Tonight,  have tweeted and posted their opinions on the early reappearance of Pumpkin spice flavored drinks at that great big coffee chain.

I bemoaned the early August Halloween decorations in stores and just yesterday I saw bins of Candy Corn for sale. Ugh. Seems Summer barely had a chance.  But now I’m jumping in with knitting pumpkin hats.

Last year I knit five baby pumpkin hats.  You can only knit so fast.  This year I looked at the list of babies I know (including new grands) and thought I’d better get knitting. Asked for head circumference measurements. Turns out I can make one hat in a day (probably about 5 hours).  I did 3 loads of laundry and changed the bed, checked email periodically and watched a few of The Chef’s Table  documentaries while I knit.  And this time I’m making notes to remember what I did which unfortunately I did not do last year.

Could have saved a lot of time checking gauge if I had done so.

Cast on 70 stitches on bamboo needles and

cast on 80 stitches on the metal needles.  I still can’t decide which material I prefer.

Each has good points.(no pun intended)

I’m a relaxed knitter so had to go down a needle size from the recommendation on the pattern which was found on Ravelry.  Weighed the hat on the food scale and I should be able to make two more hats from one skein. (I  bought two skeins but that will be a lot of hats)  one skein of green is plenty and there will be leftover. The stem is I-cord stitch. I’m skipping the leaf for now.

The pattern in Punkin Head by Tara Thomsen available for free download.

Knit on size 5 circular needles (16") with worsted weight yarn
Knit on size 5 circular needles (16″) with worsted (4)weight yarn. Of course it looks much cuter with a baby wearing it! Stay tuned.