Well its baby mania in our world at the moment. Between work, social groups and our kids daycare we have 6 very happy expecting parents. It's so beautiful watching their excitement, totally and blissfully unaware or whats to come and how life's about to change. A good friend once said to me
'You'll never be at your happiest than the time your expecting your first child'
where ever she heard that or from her great wisdom I don't know, but there's something in that I believe. There's so much joyful anticipation in planning the arrival of a new life and creating a new life for yourselves. You can see it on a new parents face.
Whether you're creating for your own bub or as a gift, you're thoughtfully pouring your love and care into something beautiful for that new soul. For me crocheting while expecting gave me that space to think about that bub, hold her in my mind and dream up our new life.
Buying clothes and room prepping didn't hold the same space.
Bub's closer to two now but she was present for both these shots. Firstly in a rather plump bump and later sporting her new beanie. While the beanie is designed for newborns, they do grow surprisingly fast. With no negative ease included in the pattern, it should fit nicely for bubs arrival and stretch to be enjoyed by your little one for the first few months.
The making:
Pattern can be downloaded HERE. This is designed for newborns to 3 months.
I don't normally work with lace weight for crochet, its easier worked for lacing knitting for me so if you're not use to using lace weight yarn don't be put off, once your through the first two rounds through the back loop (bl) it'll start to feel more natural in your hands.
What you'll need:
I chose to work with a Manos Del Uraguay yarn called Marina, a 100% Superwash Merino. It's so soft, gorgeous colour variation and once hand washed has a beautiful stitch definition. Yarn can be substituted for whatever is available to you. Choose any yarn of your choosing for your stash for the pom pom.
The project doesn't require much wool approx 123yds / 112m per 0.5oz / 14g, and you'll need a 2.25mm hook.
The body:
Originally I made this for my bub with no intension of writing it up. Making this again for more babies I felt it needed an extra repeat (rpt) in the pattern body. What you see in the cream is 2 added rounds, or 1 repeat of the bldc and bltr rounds which the pattern reflects.
If you prefer the slightly shorter grey beanie it has rnds 13 & 14 rpted 5 more times not 6 as the pattern states.
Pompom is in 2 different sizes 35mm or 45mm.
The chain (ch) at the start of rds 1-29 aren't counted as a stitch. You can see this creates a clean straight seam down the beanie.
Rnds 1-3 are under the pompom. If you'd prefer not to add a pompom work the tr sts into the bl.
This might sound obvious to you but with the main section of the beanie worked trough the back loop I thought I'd experiment with the slip stitch (slst) differently. Ending the round with the slst through the back loop rather than the whole st. In short it doesn't work. It created a raised bump where the chs are created and a wee hole on the bl at the beginning of the round. to conclude that side note you will still get the main effect working as normal without the odd bits.
The band:
For the band rnds 31- 35 the chs are counted as a st. It's created using a mix of front post (fp) and tr sts. You'll see in the photo the chs sit lack between the fp sts.
Finish up by creating a seamless join and sew in all ends. Wash and block your the
Enjoy creating something precious for a new and special arrival.
Leah x
Hi nice reading your blog