Green monkeys from Ikea

Thanks to an extra long Easter/Anzac Day public holiday (5 days, woohoo!), I was able to get down to some serious making :)

So I finally finished the tiny baby quilt that I've been working 'off and on again' for the last few months now ... it's a really simple 'cheats' quilt, purely because I couldn't bring myself to cut up the super cute Ikea fabric :D (I love those crazy green monkeys, lol)

It is just Ikea animal fabric on the top, and Ikea red/orange striped fabric on the bottom, with all of the animal designs outlined with 3 strands of embroidery thread :)

I also made a whole heap of baby and toddler hats (most of them have already been gifted, but I'll try to get photos of them soon).

These are two hats that I made from the Ann Budd Handy Book of Patterns that I borrowed from the library ... I love the accessories in this book, knitted from a clever little gauge/size grid. Looking forward to trying the mitts and socks :)

I was intrigued by the sweater pattern, but after getting about half way through knitting one for myself, I decided that the pattern was just a bit too much 80's ... you know, big armholes shapeless body, so decided to frog it and make this Super Birthday Sweater instead. Easy top down knitting and hopefully a nicely fitted shape :) I will try another Ann Budd one soon, because I do like the pattern format, but next time I'll probably stick to a toddler one :)

Half a Gargantuan Melon!

I've been looking for a while for some warm winter hats for the little-ies in our family ... I thought that ribbed ones would be a good way to go as the circumference fit doesn't have to be perfect, and they would also allow room for growth. Looking through Ravelry, there were heaps to choose from, but I really liked this one because of the awesome decreases :)

Most were either circular, or swirly or kind of scrunched to have a pom pom on the top ... thought that this one looked more boyish :D

The pattern, Gargantuan Melon, is written for an adult sized, extra large head, so instead of using bulky weight yarn and 6mm needles, I halved the yarn thickness by using 8 ply and used a 4mm needle. It was a bit of a guess as to whether it would fit or not, but the end result was perfect :) I followed the pattern exactly other than starting the decreases after 5 inches instead of 6.25 inches.

I love it! ... there will be more of these hats to come :)