Made for friends Andrew and Eva who love food, and who just had their first baby, Isaac. We thought the colours of the yarn made the hat look like a little acorn squash, modeled here by Ewan. Wishing them many happy years of delicious meals with their little one!
I've started asking the children about 6 months ahead of time what they want to be for Hallowe'en. Partly I do this to see if they're going to change their minds repeatedly; this way I don't get invested in producing a costume until I hear something consistent. I also do this with the idea that "I'll get started early this year" - which - hahahahaha! Hilarious. I kill me. In any case: both kids were clear for a long time about what they wanted to be: Neva wanted to be a chick, and Hugh wanted to be Batman. Neva helped choose the fabric for her costume, and I cobbled together a pattern from two other costume designs - would you guess that this chick is in fact the love-child of a parrot and a bumblebee? 
The second in a continuing series: here we have the same hat that I just made for a smaller child (Rory or Ewan, I'm still not sure who will wear it this winter) in a larger size, with larger yarn, and for a larger kid. Neva's new favourite colours are turquoise, light blue, and purple, so this yarn seemed perfect. She wanted embroidery on the top, and she got it. And I think it will keep her nice and warm. Despite her pensive look in the photo above, she's thrilled.
So the plan was to make a Batman hat for Hugh for the upcoming fall/winter season. (Sorry for making everyone think of winter when it's only just barely summer, but small knits are great summer projects.) I got this idea when we were at one of Neva's friends' houses and her mom put this great little hat on her. It was clearly hand knit, and I asked who had knit it, and she told me it was her grandmother, but of course the pattern was AWOL. I came home and searched for the hat on Ravelry; found it; and ordered the vintage pattern book from Alibris. (Some days I really love the internet.) Sadly, although I followed the instructions perfectly, we ended up with a bit of a "Three Bears" situation: the hat was too small for Hugh's head, and too big for Ewan's, but it fit Rory juuuuuuust right. I'm glad it will still get used. It's too cute not to be worn, don't you think? (Ewan is modeling because I was unable to get a good pic of Rory in the hat. Rest assured he looks pretty cute in it, too.)
This was absolutely not a solo project; definitely a team effort by many people, not least of whom were my cousin Kyle and his now-wife Courtney who inadvertently instigated this project by a) deciding to get married and b) getting matched to chilly Prince George, BC for their residencies. In late March, I had the idea of trying to make them a surprise group wedding gift of a knitted quilt; I emailed my mom, aunt, and cousins to see if they were interested. They were, and a few more friends came on board, and by the wedding date two months later, we had 70 8" squares and a beautiful quilt made with love. (If you're at all interested in seeing more details about this, you can check out the blog that goes along with the quilt.)
For some reason, Neva started wearing her poncho non-stop in January. She wore it to school; she wore it at home; she wore it to bed. So Hugh decided he also wanted a poncho. We finally decided that making him one with a road on it would be a good solution; this way he could play with his toys while staying warm. I finished it over March Break; he came home, put it on for about two seconds and now it has a spot in his room on his toy shelf. Was it worth it? Who can say. I got to knit, and the kids each have a poncho, and maybe ponchos take a while to fall in love with. Maybe, like Neva, he'll start wearing his non-stop about four months after it's done. We'll see. (Props to Courtney for the great name. It's not a poncho; it's a MANcho. Very manly, indeed.)
Okay, so technically these were a Solstice gift, but they required a bit of finishing and modification afterwards and I only just got them done a couple of days before Jeffy's birthday. I like them because they have a nice long cuff to keep wrists warm while allowing for use of fingers when driving, adjusting one's iPod, etc. I think Jeffy likes them, too. I can tell because he's worn them. More than once.