Sunday, February 28, 2010

Turn a Square for Claire

Turn-A-Square for Claire
Well, my hilarious Knitting Olympics hopes of gold, as expected, about as viable as those of my Olympic boyfriend Johhny Weir (totally robbed btw). The FLS is about 1/3 of the way done. Which is fine--I'm loving the pattern and Cascade 220 was such the right choice. So, sometime next week when the name 'Lindsay Vonn' is but a distant memory, I will be sporting this baby in style.
Turn-A-Square for Claire
But fear not--I did actually complete a project during these auspicious games. A hat for a five year old mind you, but hey, it's done and I'm quite happy with it. Several weeks ago I made a hat for Meredith's son Ellis, and so it was only matter of time until I obliged his big sister, Claire. Enter the most adaptable hat pattern ever, Turn-a-Square...
Turn-A-Square for Claire
The Specs:
Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood
Yarn: MC Malabrigo Worsted, 1/4 a skein in 'Shocking Pink'; CC 1/3 of a skein of Mochi Plus in 'Strawberry-Lime Rainbow' (the name is gag-worthy, but the yarn works).
Needles: size 5 & size 6
Mods: Because this was for a 5 yo, I went down several needle sizes and cast on 88 sts. At the increase round, I only added 4 sts for a total of 92 sts. I knit 3.5 inches from the cast on before the decrease row.
Turn-A-Square for Claire
I wanted to use some crazy pink Malabrigo remnants for this pattern and was delighted to find out that it matched the Mochi Plus gauge-wise perfectly. Both are single ply yarns and look perfect together.
Turn-A-Square for Claire
I think I might have a new go-to baby knit. This pattern is so easy to adapt, and rather than get sucked into to the vortex of the Baby Surprise Jacket (which always takes about 2x longer than you think it should), you could pound these out for the Dion quintuplets in no.time.flat.

19 comments:

Alison said...

Maybe that's part of the surprise of the baby jacket... the time it takes, surprise!!

I'm a stripe junky so that hat totally rocks in my world!! Definitely a madeal contender.

And I agree, Johnny was robbed, both nights- way underscored...

Anonymous said...

Great hat! But I'm not sure your model agrees...

Alice said...

oOOo loving the green on pink action!

Rose said...

I've made a few of these for my husband but never thought of doing them as baby or girl hats! It looks gorgeous; thanks for the idea.

Caffeine Girl said...

Great hat -- and sorry about your BF!

Unknown said...

Love the hat! But not perhaps as much as the look on the model's face. So classic tweeniness. :)

Unknown said...

Very cute!

sheknitupthat said...

Love it! The colours worked really well together.

Brendaknits said...

Such a great idea for the turn a square. I've seen FLS in Cascade and it was beautiful so i am sure your will be too.

gale (she shoots sheep shots) said...

Love the hat & those colors. And know that look from your model all too well (male version, same message)

Alice said...

Wow this hat rocks in Mal! I've definitely got to give the pattern another look now :)

Chelsea said...

I love the colors of the hat, so fun.

a friend to knit with said...

okay. see. if i would have read this post before now, i would have known what the turn a square was.. AND known that your fls was made out of cascade 220 and not finished. jeez.

today was awesome! xx

peaknits said...

Cute hate - and thank you for letting me on the details, so I can modify it too:) I have some malabrigo dying to be knit. And "vortex" and "bsj" - I would have never put those two words together, but damn, it works.

Unknown said...

Holy Crap! You actually know who the Dionne quintuplets were!!! They were born about the same time as my Dad, so Grandma had pictures of them in a scrapbook she made. I can't believe there other people around my age who've even heard of them. The hat is nice, too. You rock!

earthchick said...

So fab, and you know I love your surly hat model.

You are so right about the BSJ taking more time than you think. I think this hat is the way to go!

nova said...

Oh, man, the BSJ, seriously, why does that little sweater take so long!? Yep, this is a great hat for the bebehs, agree (1).

Sasha said...

It looks absolutely fabulous, well done you! Perfect yarn match, gorgeously smooth knit - lucky 5 year old!!

WonderMike said...

Your TAS is so charming... and composed of one of my favorite color combinations: pink & green.

I'm there with you about BSJs. I cannot knit them quickly, in spite of the miles of garter. The last one I did was especially long because of the striping and subsequent darning in of ends. But, it's oh so pretty afterwards.