Happy Forest Pixie

You’ve heard of the Stella Pixie hat, right?  It’s a pattern originally published in 1944 and reprinted in Vintage Baby Knits – and it’s a free download in Ravelry.  I’m sure many knitters were inspired to make it based purely on the adorable photos on the Sew Liberated blog (try these for starters).

We’re having a baby shower for a coworker in my library on Monday, and I felt this was the perfect opportunity to try this hat.  I knew it was the right choice when I looked more closely at the pattern and realized it was made out of sock yarn.  SCORE!  I didn’t even have to acquire new yarn.  I wasn’t sure how much yardage I’d need (the pattern just says “one skein” but I couldn’t imagine it took the entire skein), so I took a gamble and used some leftover yarn.  Remember these socks?

They use one of Cat Bordhi’s crazy “sockitectures,” the Sidestream.  The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in color “Happy Forest.”  Those skeins are quite generous and I had 45 grams remaining.  I cast on.

The hat is knit as a flat rectangle which is grafted later.  Because of the ribbing – and faux ribbing – it doesn’t really lay like a rectangle.  Here it is before grafting:Here is the rectangle with my able assistant holding it into shape: And here is the finished hat.  I didn’t knit the neckband and buttonhole as the pattern indicated; instead, I did i-cord and applied i-cord as you can see here.  It looks more like a Christmas tree than a hat just laying on a flat surface, I’ll admit… This hat really comes to life on a baby’s head.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a baby’s head handy.  So I used this grumpy assistant instead:His head isn’t as spherical as a baby’s – it is kind of flat like an M&M.  And his ears are in a very different spot than actual baby ears.  But he was all I had.

I think this hat will be adorable on an actual baby, and I will happily make more.  (Are you expecting a baby?  Let me know!)  It took only 35 GRAMS of Smooshy sock yarn.  I used a 3 mm needle (US 2) instead of the 3.25 mm (US 3) called for, because I really hate my 3.25 mm Clover bamboo needle.  I knit loosely, anyway.

I like this hat so much that the next time I see Smooshy sock yarn in a shop, I’ll probably buy a skein specifically to have on hand for future pixie hats!