In which I get back on that horse

So as we saw from the last post, I may not be the world's best knitter. But that's okay! There are more things I can knit. There are lots and lots of baby hat patterns in the world, and they work up quickly.

Baby heads grow quickly, too, so I got to steppin'. After trawling Ravelry's pattern database, I decided on this adorable Norwegian Baby Cap, which takes fingering weight yarn (I wound up with Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, which is technically sport weight, but whatever). If you're a Ravelry member, you can see the original pattern page with lots of cute FO pics here (including a picture of what may be the cutest baby ever known to man), and find my project page with notes here.

I do have US 1.5 DPNs, but I loathe them--they're rosewood, and I'm always terrified they'll break, and the texture is literally a drag. Ugh. And of course the pattern requires one to use, effectively, a US 2.5 needle for the main portion of the hat; I don't have such a thing, nor can I find it quickly or cheaply. But I can find, in my needle hoard, US 2 DPNs (abominably long--too long for socks, but lucky I kept them!) and US 3s, which are only barely larger than the required needles. The yarn I am using is a little larger too, so that's fine; I would do the infant size in case of winding up with a far-too-large hat, but the 1 year is only a few stitches larger than the infant, and I knit tightly, so I'm not going to worry myself too much.

One thing I discovered while tracking down some clarifications on the pattern are these Knitting Scout Badges, which are probably old news to everyone on the internet but me. However, I thought they were delightful. I am choosing to interpret the anti-grandmother part of the "Proselytizing Knitting" badge requirements as meaning that you are disqualified if you've ever said "This isn't your Grandma's knitting" or some similar bunk. Readers of Laughing Rat Studio's blog know that I can't stand that nonsense. Hopefully, the creators didn't mean that saying something like "My grandma knitted, and she was badass" was off-limits.

(My grandma did knit, but doesn't now, but she is nevertheless pretty badass.)

So I should, in theory, qualify for the proselytizing badge:



and the "Knitting Has Forced Me to Seek Medical Attention” Badge (Level One)" badge (alas!):



and definitely the "I’ve Knit Items With No Conceivable Practical Application" badge:

.

I'll leave it to the gentle reader to decide if I qualify for the Divorce badge, since I cannot have been divorced, not having ever been married, but knitting has certainly gotten me through multiple (!) unpleasant breakups. And does it count at all that my pal (mother of the aforementioned babies, in fact) and I once started a handmade wraparound pants business to help us cope with our various terrible boyfriend problems? I think it does. So maybe that one too.

That's enough for one post.