Another ancient project finished: tatted pillowcase edging

Finally finished this tatted edging and finally sewed it onto a pillowcase. I guess I started this project 3-4 years ago and never got around to completing it until recently. The pattern is "Leaf Braid" from Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns, which she described as the "easiest pattern in the book." I doubled the pattern on itself so that two rings of the braid connect into a wider braid. The thread is size 20 hand-dyed thread in a colorway called "Candy Corn." It's been so long since I bought the thread on eBay that I have no record or recollection of who I bought it from.

Sweater Models

Here are my friend Megan's daughters wearing two of the sweaters I made and gave to them. It's great to see how they look on real kids for a change.

Off the needles: Bandana Cowl

Here is my beautiful daughter modeling the alpaca cowl I knitted. The pattern is Bandana Cowl, a free pattern from The Purl Bee. The pattern gave me quite a lot of practice doing short rows; I think there were over 30 rows of short rows to create the bandana point. The yarn is a tweedy alpaca that I bought at last year's Carolina Fiber Fest. It is sooo soft. I have a good amount left so need to decide how to use it.

Off the hook: Sweater #12

Another sweater using a pattern that was originally published by Doreen Knitting Books, Volume 100, in 1950. The main yarn is Bernat's Waverly in "Fresh Flower" color trimmed with lavender Lion Brand Baby Soft yarn.

Off the needles: Baby Sweater #11

This is another sweater using the Maddy Kids pattern called Girl's Smart Topper. It's knitted in an aqua acrylic.

The Roasted Chicken Hat

A few months ago, my sister sent me a photo of a hat that looked like a roasted chicken or turkey and said she wanted me to make her one. She runs marathons and a lot of runners wear funny outfits and accessories to stand out in the crowd. All I had to go on was the photo -- no pattern. I found some yarn that looked like the color of a roasted chicken (Lion Brand Yarn's Vanna's Choice) and I bought some turkey legs to get an idea of the proportions of the leg. The hat base was easy, just a simple stockinette toboggan with a ribbed border. The legs were trickier. First, I tried knitting the leg on double-pointed needles, but I quickly saw that the results probably wouldn't hold the shape well. So I turned to crochet, working from the small end to the large end. The results were not realistic. Finally, I tried crocheting from the large end to the small which did the trick. The legs are spirals of single crochet stitches that gradually increase and then taper off. The frills were made by a couple of rounds of single crochet and then a round of chains attached with slip stitches.

Here's a photo of my sister wearing her new chicken hat: