Innocent Smoothie Hats 2013

Well the time for the Big knit has come again :) http://www.thebigknit.co.uk/ There's the link for anyone who is interested.
Basically you knit as many mini hats as you can, they can be plain or they can be elaborate characters/food items and such, then you send them in to Innocent and they put them on their smoothie bottles, each bottle with a hat on that is sold give 25p to Age UK.
The first year I made 75, don't think I'll top that but made 27 so far :) Deadline is October 1st so get them posted mid to late September for your hats to be contributed to the good cause.

All you need is some 4mm needles and some scraps or oddments of dk yarn and you can make these cute little things. They come in handy if you buy any as well to either resend the following year to give more to charity or for children's barbies etc.

I've tried adding sheets to print for the patterns but not sure if it's worked so here's a link to the patterns given on the website http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/static/bigknit/imgs/BIG_KNIT_PATTERNS2012.pdf

Matching hat

You may have read that I made my son some basic wellie socks for our camping trip, with the left over yarn I have crocheted him a hat to match.

There was only a tiny bit of orange left so not enough for more than one round but the red and lime has made a nice fitted beanie. The hat was super basic construction using only htr st throughout and colour changes wherever I wanted them, it could be made even easier in a single colour. Or if you don't liek the irregular colour pattern it could be made with a standard number of round sin each colour alternating in regular pattern.
A free basic pattern can be found on ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-crochet-hat-3
Depending on yarn and hook depend son how many rounds you need to increase before staying at same number for the hat body. An easy way to work it out is measure the head circumference of the hat recipient and divide it by 3.142, this is the diameter to make your circle then start on the body. If you want the hat to be loser increase the circle size slightly.

Wellie socks

I've been making some super basic wellie socks for my little one, ready to go camping without losing his wellies lol

I started with a vibrant orange, no way they'll be lost in the grass :) and also made him lime green and red with a lime green stripe.

He loves wearing them about the housing and running in Nanny's back yard in them, even when only one was made (as made using DPNs so knit one at a time) he would pick it up and put it to his foot for me to put it on. I'm so happy he likes wearing the things I made him :)
These were inspired by a basic pattern form a book, but they were knitted straight until the feet and I have amended the pattern a bit so they are in the round for all but the heel. It is constructed as a short row heel rather than a standard heel flap but as they are rather thick and for wellies the wear shouldn't be too bad.
Knitting using 4mm DPNs and double DK yarn. Pattern can be found on ravelry for anybody who wants to try them. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-wellie-socks-age-3-4-years

My foxy fail

Well I bought an issue of Knit Now (Issue 22) magazine purely for the Foxy Loxy pattern designed by Joeli Caparco (you can find her on ravelry). http://www.ravelry.com/designers/joeli-caparco
It's gorgeous and I was really proud of my first piece of colour work...the tension wasn't perfect on the foxes but I was happy with it and my son loved it so much he was wearing it in the house in the boiling heat lol

so imagine how gutted I was when after approx 5-6 hours of knitting it, I washed it and fail...

I didn't receive washing instructions with the yarn (which might I add was £4.50 a ball...extra gutted) and so washed it the same as I have all my other items, only it turns out this yarn is hand wash or dry clean only!
I had been intended to make the jumper from this yarn as well but now I think I'll use a machine washable yarn and this will have to be for lovely accessories...but gonna have to make my little one another foxy hat as he still keeps trying to wear it and it obviously no longer fits...poor boy!
If anybody reading this has had any similar experiences please feel free to post your fail pictures and experiences :)