My little minions

These hats are so adorable I can’t stand it.  If you haven’t seen the movie Despicable Me, please do so!

The hat part is dead easy. The eyeball is where things are a bit more challenging.  I whipped out a crochet hook and tried to crochet it, since the pattern photo clearly shows crocheted eyes.  I figured crochet was chosen because it’s easier to make concentric circles with crochet than with knitting.  But my crochet is a bit rudimentary, and I got something ruffley:

Then I noticed that the pattern ALSO had instructions for knitted eyeballs (but with a disclaimer that the designer prefers the look of crocheted eyes).  She specifies using dpns and for some reason I did.  Man, it took me FOREVER to knit this: 

The pattern calls for you to bind off after completing the white portion.  Then you make a gray i-cord and sew it around the eye.  I thought it sounded a lot simpler to finish the eye with an applied i-cord bindoff, so I did.  And I liked the bindoff.  But look at how the black part of the eyeball isn’t round at all!  Yuck!  The pattern called for you to change yarns on an increase round and to use the “knit through front and back,” which created this pixellated look.  So I tried again, and got these:Much improved.  I made them bigger, too, as you can see.  Then I hit them with steam from the iron to see if they would settle down a bit.  I didn’t actually touch the iron to the fabric, since the i-cord is very three-dimensional and I wanted to keep that (the gray is supposed to look like goggles).  Can you see the difference?  Left eye is unblocked, right eye is steamed: Then I sewed the eyeballs onto the hats.  I used a black tail from the middle to tack down that middle section, and then I used a long piece of gray yarn to whip stitch around the circumference.  I picked up one side of the gray V closest to the white part, which is kind of on the back of the eye, so it doesn’t show:

Mama and minions are very pleased!

Hats out, hats in

My knitting focus at the wane of 2011 and dawn of 2012 has been on hats for wee ones.  I whipped up one of those insanely cute Aviatrix Baby Hats for a friend who is expecting (free rav download):I just love these helmut-style hats that hug tiny fuzzy newborn heads.  This one looks a little military because of the color, but rest assured this is the color the mother selected for her little boy.  It was so adorable that I made another one for a colleague who is expecting in just a couple of weeks:This is one of those patterns that comes in a lot of sizes and for several weights of yarn.  I used Dream in Color Classy (100% superwash – important for babies of non-knitters) in color Shiny Moss, which is a worsted weight yarn.  The first hat was made in the 3 month size.  I chose to move up to the 6 month size for the second one, remembering what an enormous head my colleague’s first child had (I say this with love, since Boy 1 was the same way).  Then again, her second child wasn’t so top heavy. But I digress.  My point is that the 6 month hat came out smaller than the 3 month hat.  I ripped back and added another wedge.  Let’s hope it fits.  There are too buttons to help the strap fit longer.  That garter stitch should stretch a lot.

Boy 2 has been asking for a minion hat off and on all fall, so I think he’s serious about it.  Did you see Despicable Me?  If not, you should! It’s great even if you don’t have kids.  There are lots of adorable minions in the film, and this free hat pattern mimics them. So we went to The Mannings yesterday to get minion yarn. The shop owner thought we were making a Steelers hat but nooooooooooooo sirree, not at this house.  I started this at a NYE gathering last night and it’s humming right along.  I’ll have to give myself a crochet refresher tutorial when it comes time to make the eye (some minions have two eyes and some have one; Boy 2 has requested a one eye hat).

I have also been working on the Vodka Gimlet sweater, but I’ll update you on that in a few days when I have more to show you!

Any knitting resolutions for 2012?  Ravelry always buzzes with year-long project KALs this time of year.  Last year I participated in the Sock Stash Knitdown (SSK) with the Stash & Burn group.  Any good ones this year?  Are you joiners or go-it-aloners?