Hats and Monsters

Yesterday I posted a photo of the hat that I've been working on. Hopefully as you're reading this it's in a state of (or very near) completion. I've had to put it down to write this week's batch of blog posts, but you can bet that as soon as I'm done with this I'll be picking it up and doing my best to finish it off.

I acquired this pattern after seeing a post on Ravelry for someone looking for test knitters for a hat pattern. I was getting more and more cheesed off with my dragon so decided to go for it. It's a different sort of pattern to what I would usually do and I'll probably do a proper review of it at some point in the future, but I've really enjoyed watching it come together.


This picture was taken just as I was starting the top decreases. The bottom part of the hat involves knitting a length of I-cord, which twists over at the front, all the stitches are picked up from this to make the main bit of the hat, and then again to make the ribbing (not pictured here) to form the bottom of the hat.

It's very pretty and definitely the sort of thing I can see myself wearing. Unfortunately the wool that I've been using has a habit of leaving fluffy bits (just while you're working with it, once it's finished and you brush them all off it's fine). As I've largely been knitting this in bed while we watch ER, my side of the bed has these little green fluffy bits all over the floor. I'm trying to be good about picking them up but I regularly get out of bed in the morning and nearly have a heart attack at the sight of all these little beasties on my floor!

I've been rushing to get this hat finished, not only because it's a test knit and I owe it to the designer to get it done, but also because I need to knit a monster!

I treated myself to Rebecca Danger's The Big Book of Knitted Monsters at Christmas and have kept it by my bed, looking through the pictures regularly, ever since it arrived. And now I need to make a monster.

All of the monsters in this book have a purpose in life. There's a Computer Monster (whose sole purpose in life is to tangle your computer cables), there's a Laundry Monster (who makes sure that you always have odd socks in your wash) and a whole host of other monsters who can be knitted up with pretty much any yarn you have to hand.

I'm going to be making a Claude, who is technically a Closet Monster, but who I believe has a side line in keeping bad dreams away. He's going to be made in a pretty variegated pastel yarn with some random dark brown stripes. I can picture exactly how he'll look in my mind so I just have to hope I can transfer that onto my needles.

I'll also be embroidering his eyes, rather than using the plastic safety ones pictured above and I'm not sure about his random tooth. I like it, but since it's done with felt, and I haven't got any, I'm thinking I might knit or embroider that as well. I've got plenty of time to decide that anyway.

And I'm hoping he'll be the first of many, because there's so many different monsters in this book and no two need ever look alike!