pattern: gumnut

There's something about using the baby as a model for the patterns I knit her that never quite works out well enough, I had to get this picture as she was asleep, she wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a closeup on the hat.





I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

I remember having to memorise that poem when I lived in sydney for a while. It wasn't the sunburnt brown deserts that fascinated me, but the faded grey-green hills in the Blue mountains.

I was gifted this yarn as part of a swap on ravelry. The faded green and pale brown reminded me a lot of the colours of the hillsides and there was just the right amount to make a hat, that an Aussie friend described to me as 'she looks like she has a gum nut on her head'

So the pattern is gum nut. It's a simple enough variation on many baby hats out there, but I wanted to make one of my own. So there.

yarn: leftover cashmerino DK

cost: to me, nothing because i swapped for it. to buy the yarn, about a tenner.but you would use about 1/3 of it



time: 2 hours to knit, 15 mins to finish

knitability level: beginner

needles: 1 pair 4mm (US 6)

gauge: 25 rows and 28 stitches per 10cm

Measure baby's head round the hairline, multiply the measurement in cm by 2.5 to get the number of stitches to cast on, round this up to the nearest 10, don't worry if this will make the hat a little large, baby's don't get any smaller.

Cast on in the pale brown colour. knit 7 rows in garter stitch, switch to the green colour.

Measure distance between baby's hairline and crown. knit in stocking stitch in green until the work measures about 3/4 of this distance. slightly under is better than slightly over.

begin decreases:

(k2tog, k9,)repeat to end, purl row
(k2tog, k8) repeat to end, purl row
(k2tog, k7) repeat to end, purl row

repeat in pattern, until:

(k2tog) repeat to end, purl row.

knit 8 rows in stocking stitch, then

(k2, k2tog, k to end, purl row)repeat until 4 stitches are left, knit at least 4 more rows in stocking stitch, you should have between 4-5 inches of tail on top of the hat.
cast off. sew up edge in mattress stitch, and sew in ends.

tie a knot in the tail on the top