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Hello and thanks for visiting my blog. I have been knitting on and off for 50 years and I recently learned to crochet. I love looking for wool bargains and making them into something useful. I mainly knit for charity. I occasionally knit for myself and family members if I find a really good pattern or if they ask nicely!!

Monday 25 January 2016

Yarn chicken: you win some, you lose some...




I bought the first issue of a new crochet magazine last year.  The only reason was its cheap introductory price.  This made the free gift of two balls of yarn very good value. One was a useful white and the other was a cheerful green.  I chose to make something with the green last week as it reminded me of the spring that can't be far away.  

The yarn bands did not give any information about its weight or recommended hook/needle sizes.  I measured it as 5 ply which is not something I am really used to.  I decided to knit a baby hat.  I like this colour on children but I chose the 6 months size as it might be a bit too strong for newborns.  I wasn't confident that I would have enough yarn and I was right.  I had to speed up the crown decreases and this hat would probably now fit a baby of 4 months.  

I then took the white yarn and knitted a hat for a newborn.  I'm much happier with this one as there was enough yarn to knit the pattern as written.  The pattern is the Simple Lines Baby Hat by Heather Tucker and I will definitely knit this again.  The designer has even included links to coordinating baby blanket patterns.

I realised too late that I should have knitted the white newborn hat first.  That way, I would have been forewarned that I didn't have enough green yarn for the 6 months size.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

11 comments:

  1. Lovely hats Una and the yarn looks as if it's good quality too, the yarn I've had for free out of magazines is usually about 15 gram balls and poor quality but ok for making little toys or flowers. Thank you for the pattern link. :) xx

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  2. They are both wonderful and will keep a little head safe and warm.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  3. Whoever wear the green hat will never know. They are great.

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  4. They both look lovely, Una! Yes I've had a few disappointments over the years when yarn ran out and the fact that the ball bands gave no info must have been frustrating.

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  5. I love those pretty hats you knitted Una and what lovely colors! Enjoy the week and thanks for your lovely visit! Julie

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  6. Well I think they both look lovely anyway, the green is very unusual and would be great for a boy I think.
    Jillxo

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  7. The hats are very nice, Una. Do you have a kitchen scale? I have a digital one and it has come in quite handy in situations like this where I'm not sure quite how much yarn I have left.

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    1. I actually bought a digital scale for estimating yarn quantities. The pattern wasn't very forthcoming on how much yarn I would need. But I have weighed the hats and I will know in future.

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  8. Great little hats Una :) And it is true .... no matter how old we are - we still learn new things!

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  9. Una, I've often been amazed at how you seem to stretch your yarn to suit the needs of a particular pattern. Seems like magic! I suppose it's because you're careful to know how much yarn you need, and how much is on the skein. I'm really bad about launching into a project and not figuring out ahead of time if I have enough :( It's good to know you're human too - haha!!

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