Knitting

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Snowflake Hats to Wear in the Snow and Beyond

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snowflake hatsI may have seen enough snow for a while (after being snowed in for a week), but the snowflake motif is still a classic in knitting. I like snowflake hats enough that I’ve knit one in baby-size; I’m thinking about one for bigger people, too.

If you’d like to add some snowflakes to your next hat project, here are a few ideas for you.

The Snowflake Hat from Carissa Knits is a cute one, with snowflakes along the bottom and alternating colors in the top, which gives an extra layer of warmth inside. It’s also sized for 6 months to large adult, because she knit them for her whol family.

I love the bright colors in the Snowflake Hat from Newton’s Knitting, but of course you could go for a more subdued palette if that’s your style.

Evan Plevinski’s Snowflake Hat was designed for a Fair Isle knitting class, and it would be a great first project for stranded knitting. The snowflake motif covers the whole hat here, which is nice.

The earflap snowflake hat from Twisted Stitch OK was originally worked in cotton, but of course you could use wool or any other fiber if you need a warmer project.

And then there are the Ravelry downloads: I love Ikumi Kayama’s Snowflake Penguin Hat and may just have to steal her charts to make a wee version for my penguin-loving princess; the Snowflake Slouchy Beanie from Siobhan Brown is cute for a casual look; the Chunky Snowflake Hat from Silver Tabby Designs is another earflap warmer; and the Norwegian Fair Isle Snowflake Hat by Tim Doran is a bit more of a challenge but a beauty, for sure.

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Knit a Fish Pouch, for Reasons

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]