FO: wee bonny bonnet

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet with Anime Character from Hello Yarn.
Yarn: ggh Scarlett cotton, half a ball (about 25 grams), colour: 023 White (tea-dipped).
Needles: 3MM dpns
For: Friend's baby due in December 06.
Skills learned: Shaping 101
Mods:
The ears: The pattern for the ears in the newborn sizing is a tad large in proportion to the bonnet.
After quite a bit of experimentation I ended up casting on 6 stitches, knitting 5 rows -increasing by 4 stitches every 2nd row- until I had 14 stitches, then knitting another 4 rows -decreasing by 4 stitches every 2nd row- until I had 6 stitches remaining. Bind off and sew on.
The pattern says to pick up stitches from the top of the head and work the ears up however (maybe because I'm still learning) I found this ended up with very stretched-looking base stitches and I instead I could get a neater join if I made the ears separately and sewed them on. But to each their own.

The figure 8 cast on: I've lost all sense of how much time I spent trying unsuccessfully to execute this cast on technique. The genius Goat came up with a much better solution ( I say "better" because I could do it..and these things are all subjective after all) which is simply casting on half the amount of stitches you need (obviously this only works with an even amount), then knitting into both the front and back of the cast on stitch. Brilliant!

Subsequently the (elusively named?) author of Hello Yarn has posted a tutorial here.

Finishing: Obviously I opted to go sans anime character... cute tho' he is!




I'm pleased with the tea dip results. Although hard to tell from the photos there's a subtle variegation in the yarn. And it's very gender-neutral.

Once again, Ms. Vase obliges as model. Although I hope Belinda's baby doesn't have a strange shelf-shaped protruberance around its forehead like ms vase.