My lil' punkin

What would an autumn be without a pumpkin hat for the newest member of the family? When I first started loom knitting back in 2006, I made a very basic little pumpkin hat for Will & Kate, my now four year old twin grandchildren.  In keeping with tradition, I wanted to design an updated version for their new brother, Luke (picture above).

The Lil' Punkin Hat features a one inch rolled brim and six sections divided by a line of purl stitches. This project was made on the Knifty Knitter long green loom using loom clips to create the 42 pegs used for the body of the hat.  Using the loom clips to decrease created a smoother top and allowed the stem to be knitted directly into the hat.

To add some finishing touches, a leaf made on the Knifty Knitter Flower Loom and a curly tendril  made on 18 pegs of the KK long loom were each knitted separately and stitched to the top of the hat to complete the little pumpkin. The pattern is listed in the Pattern Box on the right as Punpkin Hat with Leaf & Tendril.

Tom-Tom the Leprechaun

It seems Tommy Turkey has a new cousin, Tom-Tom the Leprechaun. This new creation is compliments of April Taylor, one of the creative members of the Yahoo Knifty Knitter Loom Knitting Group. April has morphed the turkey into a leprechaun in time for St. Patrick's Day.

Here are April's modifications (thanks April) to the original pattern in case you want to impress your Irish friends on March 17th:

Leprechaun Hat
by April Taylor

(Adapted from Tommy Turkey Hat by Brenda Myers which is available from Loom Lore at http://loomlady.blogspot.com).

Materials:

KK 48-peg Adult Hat Loom
Peach, cream or light tan yarn (for face)
Green yarn (for hat)
Black yarn (for hat band, nose, eyes & mouth)
Orange yarn (for beard)
Knitting tool
Plastic yarn needle
Crochet Hook

Instructions:
Using the Knifty Knitter purple adult hat loom, cast on using a peach or flesh colored yarn and knit 14 rows. Change yarn to paddy green (Redheart) and knit 12 rows. To form the leprechaun’s hat brim, bring the first row of green up to the pegs and knit that row off. Form the “hat band” by changing to the black yarn and knitting 8 rows. Change back to green and knit 14 rows. Work a gathered bind off.

Finishing:
Work a single crochet edge around the bottom to prevent it from rolling.

For the eyes, use black yarn and chain 2; work 6 single crochets in the 2nd chain from hook, and join to form a small circle. Make two of the circles and sew to the hat.

For the mouth, use black yarn and chained 14. Sew this chain on with a yarn needle into the smile shape.

For the buckle, using yellow chain 32 and sewed it into a square shape centering in the front over the black “hat band”. (If I would have had a yellow pipe cleaner I might have tried to figure out how to shape it into a buckle and sew it on.)

For the beard, I use a size F crochet hook and chain 50 in orange. Work a single crochet in the 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Chain 1 turn and work a loop stitch by wrapping the yarn around the index finger and complete a single crochet while holding the loop.

From turkey to snowman

Michelle's Frosty Snowman Hat

My Tommy Turkey Hat

Did you know that a turkey can become a snowman? Well, Michelle Thomas, a member of the hottest new Yahoo Group Knifty Knitter Loom Knitting Group, shows us how. She took my Tommy Turkey pattern and with some creative changes morphed him into a Frosty Snowman hat. I was so impressed that I got Michelle's permission to post the picture along with her changes on my blog. Thanks Michelle for sharing what is sure to be the hit of the season for all the loom knitters. Now, here are Michelle's instructions:

Frosty Hat
(original Tommy Turkey Pattern by Brenda Myers. Adaption to Frosty by Michelle Thomas)

Materials needed

• Red or Green KK Loom
• KK Spool Loom
• White yarn (for face)
• Black yarn (for hat)
• Orange yarn (for nose)
• Color of your choice (for "scarf" and stripe on hat)
• Black buttons or beads (for eyes)
• Knitting tool
• Plastic yarn needle

Brim:

• E-wrap cast on
• E-wrap stitch 14 rows
• Bring first row up and place loops back on pegs. Knit off.

Face:

• Change to white
• E-wrap stitch 9 rows

Hat:

• Change to black
• E-wrap stitch 1 row
• Rib stitch (k1, p1, k1, p1 .... ) 8 rows
• Bring the loops from the first BLACK row back up onto the pegs (like when doing brim) and knit off
• Change to color that matches "scarf"
• E-wrap stitch 4 rows
• Change to black
• E-wrap stitch 9 rows

Bind off:

• Move loop on peg 1 to peg 2
• Move loop 3 to peg 4
• Move loop 5 to peg 6
• Keep moving odd loops to even pegs until you have all of them like that. Knit off
• E-wrap pegs with loops on them (go behind pegs without loops) Knit off
• Thread needle with working yarn and do a gathered bind off.

Nose:

• On small end of Spool Loom cast on in orange
• Purl 2 rows
• E-wrap stitch 4 rows
• Gathered bind off
• Pull yarn to inside of nose
• Attach purled end to center of face with orange yarn.

Eyes:
With black thread tie on 2 black buttons or beads.

Candy corn, pumpkin, spider web & turkey hats

Among some of my first loom knitted projects were the autumn hats for my grandchildren that I made last October. I posted information about these on several of the Yahoo groups, but at that time I didn't have a blog. I've decided to go ahead and add them to my blog since they are autumn projects.

The first of my autumn hats was the little pumpkin hats I made for my twin grandchildren who were born last September. They were just a few weeks old when the picture on the right was made. The Pumpkin Hat pattern is listed in my Pattern Box on the right.

My second autumn hat was the Candy Corn Hat I made for my granddaughter. She was only nine months old when the picture was made. This hat was made using Red Heart worsted weight yarn with 2 strands held as one. The yellow brim was made rather long in order to turn up on the outside using k2/p2 ribbing. Two or three rows of yellow and the remainder of the hat were made using the basic e-wrap knit stitch (double strand wraps knitted over double strand wraps). The yellow & orange part of the hat, along with 2 rows of the white, was made on the red KK loom. I decreased one peg every 3 or 4 pegs on the 31 peg red KK after doing about 18 or 19 rows of the orange to end up with loops on 24 pegs. These were transferred to the 24 peg blue KK and a couple more rows were knitted off. After that I decreased every other peg on the 24 peg blue loom to end up with 12 pegs with loops, which were transferred to the little peach colored 12 peg KK flower loom. A couple more rows were knitted off and then I decreased every other peg again to end up with six pegs. I ended by knitting off the 6 pegs using the existing loops on the pegs since they each had 2 wraps on them and used the gathered removal method to bind off. A white pompom was added to the top.

The third of the autumn hats was the spider web hat I made for my grandson, who was 2 years old when the picture was made. This hat was done on the green loom. The cuff is a k1/p1 ribbing with 3 rows of black, 3 rows of orange and 3 more rows of black. The body of the hat was done in orange using a regular e-wrap knit stitch for 18 rows. After that I used the same technique outlined in the Tommy Turkey Hat pattern, where you divide the hat into 4 sections, and decrease into a point. When you finish the 4 wedges, whip stitch them together. The web pattern was accomplished by marking off where I wanted the web to go, then holding a strand of black yarn on the inside of the hat and chain stitch it in place using a crochet hook through the knit stitches.

The last of the autumn hats was my Tommy Turkey Hat. This was one of those spur of the moment things that was just fun to do. The instructions for this pattern are also located in the Pattern Box on the right.