Little Knitted Hats For My Babies

Last Friday it rained the whole day. There was thunderstorm and everything and I thought, perfect cool day to tackle double pointed needles!

Since knitting my first hat in January, I have been meaning to knit hats for my dolls and the only thing stopping me was a lack of circular needles small enough to fit round the dolls' heads. I love knitting on circular needles. They're so much easier to hold and manage.  I made a trip to Spotlight and after going through every size of circular needle in the shop, I came to the conclusion I'm never going to be able to find knitting needles for a 5 inch head. Also circular needles are ridiculously expensive, no? Someone told me to try magic loop and I gave it a go. However, my brain is saturated so I don't think I can figure it out yet. So the next option was to give dpn another go. I mean I've tried it before and it was so hard but I did manage to knit something.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to start with making a hat for Neve, my favourite doll. (she's the pale white one) Her head is very small, like 5 3/4" in circumference. But the knitting gods were kind to me. After casting on the stitches, I knitted the stitches into 3 separate needles and by some magical spell, my hands somehow knew what to do. Which needle to hold, which hand to use. (I still haven't got comfortable with casting on 3 needles) I don't understand it myself because in my head, I don't really know how to use dpn. But my body (or rather my hands) knew. It's like my hands have its own separate memories! And I'm not afraid to put my work down because you know I have magic hands now.

Before I knew it, I had made a hat for Neve. I've always felt bad for Neve because she is such a tiny doll it's very hard to find or make outfits for her. I like her the most because she doesn't break easily. (she's made of rubber)

This is going to surprise you but I made the entire hat without using lifelines. With dpn, I knit very tightly so I can't insert a lifelife. I don't know how to knit loosely no matter how I try. Maybe it's a good thing because if the needles fall off I'm done for. I have 2 sets of dpn and both are made of bamboo. When I get better at dpn, I'm getting steel dpn if they exist.

Lammily has the smallest head, only 5" in circumference. But I made her hat larger to accommodate her big hair. Yep, same pattern and oh yes, something wonderful happened in the midst of knitting Lammily's hat. When I switched yarn colours, I started to SEE the rows. Previously I've always seen squiggles but now I see ROWS.

Dana, my Journey Girl doll has the biggest head. The circumference of her head is 12"! She's a giant compared to most of my dolls.

Dana does not sit very well but her standing pose is fantastic.

My knitting has improved so much in just a week. I'm starting to feel adventurous and have gone to ravelry to check out other hat patterns. This is literally the only hat pattern I know right now. I mean I can't keep knitting the same hat pattern, right?