A Fun and Festive Christmas Hat!

 I love Christmas--the Christmas season, the decorations, the happiness, celebrating, everything about it.  I crocheted this very festive Christmas hat for my granddaughter.  

The hat is based on the idea of the "ugly Christmas sweaters."  But, it turns out so cute!  I love Christmas sweaters, too, and don't find most of them ugly.  :)

K loves her hat!  The pattern is the Ugly Christmas Sweater Beanie, by Hooked on Sunshine.  Every pattern round is different, and most rounds have a color change, too, so there are lots of ends to weave in.  There are lots of different stitches, too.  Hooked on Sunshine has amazing and beautiful patterns for afghans, too.

I really enjoyed crocheting this colorful hat, and K loves wearing it!  

My notes: Size 4.5 mm hook and Red Heart Super Saver yarns in red, green, and white.

The hat turned out too long, so I skipped rounds 25 and 26. I also skipped some of the last rounds, and my last round is Front and Back post HDC instead of DC.  9" long.  Width is fine.

If bringing up colors for the last few rounds, make sure to join to the top of the Chain 2 at the end of the round with the new color, and then chain 2, which counts as the first stitch.  R. 16, popcorn is into the middle of the SC.

Norwegian Selbu Socks

I love taking classes, and with the covid virus numbers, traveling to a sheep and wool festival wasn't possible this year.  But, I was so happy to hear that Patricia, of Knitography, was giving online classes for Norwegian knitting projects. Patricia lives in Norway.

I signed up for her Selbu Socks, and she showed us pictures of a number of different patterns she designed, and we chose the one we wanted to learn to knit.  I chose Design number 5.  I decided to make them for my granddaughter.

The classes consists of videos, blog posts, and Zoom lessons, if needed.  I really enjoyed the class.  Patricia even shared her Farmor's pattern for her Raggsokker, which are heavy woolen socks. Farmor is Patricia's father's mother.  The pattern was never written down until now.  

The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, but I used sport weight yard for a heavier sock.  I used Wool of the Andes Sport in Winter Night, and Nature Spun Sport in Snow.

The color is a darker blue than the image.  We knit a pretty pattern on the underside of the sock, which Patricia calls a secret message.

I really enjoyed knitting these socks!  Someday I would love to knit more Norwegian socks from Patricia's ebook on Selbu Socks.

K loves them, and they are so warm!

My notes:

Cast on 64 stitches, Norwegian Cast on with US 1 (2.25 mm) needles.  K1, P1 for 1 3/4".  Yarn: 2 balls of each color, 50 grams each. Size 2 sock pattern.  Gauge: 7 stitches per inch.  Leg circumference in pattern: 9-9.5".  K's 9.5" about 5 inches above ankle.

Leg: U.S. 1.5,  (2.5 mm) needles. 2 repeats of the chart plus 3 rows, ending after an odd row.  16 rows of colorwork = 2" long.  8 rows per inch.

Heel and foot:  I switched to 2.25 mm needles because I thought the sock might be too big for her. About 8-8.5 stitches per inch.  8 rows per inch. 

K's foot:  9 3/4" long, size 8.5 shoe.  Heel flap should be 6-8 cm.  (2.36 to 3.14") 32 slip stitches for heel.  Pick up 16 plus 2 extra.  First stitch, pick up in pattern color.

K's foot: 7 7/8" long, then toe.  3 stolpe stitches remain each side, not decreased.  Decrease every other row until 40 stitches, one more knit row, then decrease every row to 24 stitches.  Kitchener 12 to 12 stitches.