The Littlest of Red Hats

When my grandfather died, my grandmother (who will never die--I mean this in the nicest way possible, this woman is an indestructible force) opted to join the Red Hat Society.  Now, her friend loaned her some "large awful thing", and she requested that I make her a new hat, "but not a real hat, something small she can clip into [her] hair."  My grandmother does not like hats.

Now, I've never made a hat, much less a hat with a ten-day deadline in the middle of the Christmas season.  But, she's my grandmother--so what the hey?

Since I wasn't sure where to begin with the concept of "tiny red hat"--other than the obvious--I poked around the craft store and picked up red felt, embroidery thread, purple ribbon, and some various odds and ends.  I have yarn and fabric in nearly every color, so I figured if I needed anything else, I would already have it.  As it happened, I did not.  To get some ideas, I worked on a couple sketches:

The making of the hat was surprisingly easy.  It's hand-stitched (and, embarrassingly, not my best work), with typical sewing stitching for some portions, and blanket stitching where the floss would be seen.  I also used hot glue to stiffen the two bottom pieces of felt before blanket stitching them together. Not the classiest or most professional way to starch the bottom of the hat, but functional under a tight time limit and budget.

Since the hat was so small, I opted to go a bit simple with the details--purple ribbon (just like the red hat logo), a little purple bow, and some Christmas berries, since the hat is for their Christmas party.

And viola!  A tiny little Red Hat!

Of course, I had some concern over the best way to clip it in, but given my grandma's hair type and preferences, I opted to put two loops on the bottom so the hat can be bobby-pinned to her hair.

I even tried it out myself:

Not bad for having no clue what I was doing!

Handmade for the Holidays

As November comes to a close, the holiday season is fast approaching! What does this mean? Hundreds of projects to make! Well, maybe not hundreds, but I've certainly got my hands full. In fact, there's really only three or four projects right now, but two of them are knitting, and I'm new at this!  So, you know, give me a break here.  I'm still a slow knitter.

First up is a project of socks. Socks frightened me, I admit, for awhile. But then I tried to make one, and, hey: it's actually not so bad. Pretty fun, actually, although starting the cuff is a problem for me still.

I'm at the very beginning of this project, although I have been carefully planning it.  I've never done a multi-color design before, and while it is a fairly simple one I'm pretty nervous about it.  Also: because I'm a bit skittish about who might stumble over this blog, I'm refraining from posting what the design is, but here is my very fragile beginnings:

Eventually I'm going to post the full pattern, and the finished project.  This is one gift I'm pretty excited for, so I'm hoping all goes well.

My next knitting project is one for my friends:  Little octopodes for each of them!  We aren't much for exchanging gifts for the holidays, but I wanted the practice, and this little guys aren't very labor intensive.

Each color is for a different person, and Mr. Orange is almost done--just need to finish up a couple more arms.  I'm hoping to do something fun and quirky with button eyes for the little guy, as well.

The pattern for the octopus was completely self-developed.  Since learning crochet wasn't in the plans, I needed to figure out how to make a ball while knitting in the round.  After experimenting a bit, I'm pretty proud of the result.

Finally, my mother's birthday is in a little over a week.  What does this mean?  She's getting a fancy plush Dachshund for her new bedset.  So far as I have the pattern, and the fabric I'm using.  Hopefully this little guy will be done by Friday to show off here: