Free Pattern- My Cupcake Hat

Well I did it. I made my own pattern. I was inspired when I made a Kittyville hat for my nephew. I altered the Kittyville pattern by using a 2x2 rib at the bottom instead of a seed stitch. The hat was black and yellow and was intended to look like Batman. The ribbing reminded me of the yellow paper that you put cupcakes into when you bake them. So I came up with this hat.

Here's the pattern for a three year old hat. Enjoy!

I used leftover worsted-weight pink, yellow and red yarn.

You'll need size 8 circular (16") and double pointed needles.

Cast on 80 stitches with the yellow yarn.

Work 2x2 rib for 3 inches.

Change to pink yarn work *Knit 3, Knit one into front and back* for entire round, ending with 100 stitches.Work until piece measures 5 inches from cast on edge.

Then you start the decreases.

*Knit 8, Knit 2 together* for entire round (90)- Knit next round

*Knit 7, knit 2 together* for a round (80) - Knit next round

*Knit 6, knit 2 together* for a round (70) - Knit next round

*Knit 5, knit 2 together* to end (60) - Knit next round

*Knit 4, Knit 2 together* (50) - knit next round

Switch to double pointed needles.

*Knit 3, knit 2 together* for one round (40)- Knit next round

*Knit 2, knit 2 together* (30) - Knit next round

*Knit 1, Knit 2 together* (20)

*Knit 2 together* to end of round (10)

Break yarn, draw yarn through remaining stiches and secure inside hat. Make a red pompom and attach to top of hat. Ding! The cupcake hat is done!

Little Man's Hedgehog

I checked out Family Circle Easy Toys from the library. In my opinion, most of the patterns were not easy. However, this hedgehog was so easy that I made the toy in one night. It's adorable and I hope to get three toys from the one ball of fuzzy yarn and one ball of worsted beige.

Red Hat and Scary Guy in Momo's Room

I recently fell in love with this yarn at my local yarn store. I bought 5 balls of it. One in shrimp, one in green, one blue and two in red. Its width is variegated as is the color. It's pretty cool to work with. Here's the hat I made with red and leftover green.

I purchased a glass head to model my hats. I left it on my dresser and forgot about it. Then the Little Man came to my house one afternoon. While I was in the kitchen he ran to me and said with wide eyes,"Momo, there's a scary guy in your room!" I had no idea what he was talking about, so he grabbed my hand and took me to my room. Then he pointed at the glass head. Scary Guy. I laughed because he was with me when I bought it. I put a hat on it. After that he wasn't afraid of the scary guy.

My Little Wizard

I finally finished my house scarf. It's just in time for the new movie, too. I brought my scarf to my yarn store and the ladies there thought I did a good job. I was pretty proud. It took me about two months to make it. Now I am working on knitted presents for my family and friends. I cannot post them in case they look up my blog, although it seems nobody comes to my blog.

Little Man's Hat & Mittens

Here's the Wee Man's new hat and mitten set. He liked them so much, he wanted to wear them around town, but August in Florida is not mitten weather! He adorably implored,"Momo, where my mitts?" Still, it's nice to have my work appreciated! The pattern is from Family Circle Knitting, and I can't wait to make a pink and black pair for Punky. He picked out the yarn himself a month ago, but the House Scarf has been taking up most of my time. I want to make Punky a scarf, but it is very time consuming and I'm all about instant gratification! He is not the most patient boy, either, so I may have to knit it in secret to avoid the daily interrogation.

House Scarf

I'm working on a house scarf. I think every Harry Potter fan who knits makes one, like a right of knitting passage. The pattern is from atypicallyknit. Punky wants a Slytherin and a Gryffindor. I told him he only gets one, and we'd find a sorting hat online. I was sorted into Gryffindor on the Warner Brothers' Harry Potter website and I suspected everyone was, until my friend was sorted into Slytherin!

Make Funky Knitting Needles

I read in Melanie Falick's Kids Knitting that you can make your own knitting needles from wooden dowels. I want to start a knitting club with the children at the day care where I work, and thought I'd try to make some cool needles for the kids to use. I purchased 1/4 dowels, and cut them into thirds. Then sharpened them to point, but not too sharp, the little ones can be accident prone. I also bought oven bake sculpting clay to make little trinkets for the tops of the needles. Here are my first attempts.

Make Your Own Snail Needle Toppers - Free Instructions

Make two rolls with oven bake for each snail. I suggest making both pieces at the same time so the toppers are the same size.

Roll the larger piece to make the shell.


Flatten the smaller piece to prepare for blending into the shell.

Blend the two pieces togther on the underside.

Place glass bead eyes on the snail with a toothpick.

Push the snail onto the needle/dowel to make a hole. Be careful not to push too hard and ruin the snail.



I also put a smile on the snail with a toothpick. You could also put more beads into the shell for decoration. Then bake the clay according to the manufacturer's instructions. Then you glue them on after cooling. Voila! Escargot for your knitting needles.

Knit Lit. 101 - Knitting in the Harry Potter Series

Now that I knit, I notice it everywhere. While rereading the Harry Potter books in anticipation of Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince, I realized that many characters in the series knit. Of course this is not a new observation, there are websites devoted to the subject. One of my favorites is atypicallyknit.com. It has knitting patterns for the clothes in the movies. Still...here is a page reference.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, there are a few knitting references. Hagrid knits on the train to London after he and Harry first meet. Harry cannot decifer exactly what it is, only that is is yellow and huge. Hagrid seems to know what he's doing, he talks and counts stitches at the same time! (Rowling 65) Of course I guess you can be secure in your masculinity when you're a half giant. Harry and the Weasley boys each receive a sweater from Mrs. Weasley on Christmas, too (202).

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic, 1997.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry gets another sweater from Ron's mother. It says that it's hand-knit, so for her to make it for Harry without magic, the muggle way, it's really an effort (212).

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic, 1999.

The third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, has another new sweater for Harry. While Ron gets the faithful but detested maroon without an initial, Harry's is red with a lion. Ron receives what I assume are hand-knit maroon socks as well that year, but all cannot compare with Harry's firebolt (223). All that stitching upstaged by a broom...kids.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Scholastic, 1999.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is my favorite book in the series so far. There are a few reasons for this. One of the Irish team Quidditch members at the World Cup has my surname and another player has the same last name as one of my close friends. He's Irish, too. I cannot wait to see the uniforms in the fourth movie, I want to knit myself one with my maiden name on it. All I can surmise from the book is that the uniforms are green with silver names on the back (105). I also like that the bushy haired bookworm goes to the ball with a celebrity (414). ( Hermione's my favorite character. I was once called cobweb head in middle school. I also tend to go overboard in school and read reference books. I'm hoping that J.K. Rowling will write Hogwarts, A History for charity as she did with the other school books for Comic Relief. How much of a nerd am I?!) Back to the knitting. Knitting is appreciated in this book, mainly by Dobby the elf. He is ecstatic to have Ron's yearly Christmas sweater and socks. Dobby knits socks for Harry as a Christmas present. He uses his pay to purchase the wool, and makes a red one with brooms and a green with Snitches (409). I am ruminating on how to reproduce them myself, but have yet to make socks. It would probably be wise to see if they are shown in the movie, then I can use that for inspiriation.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2000.

In year five, the knitting is more prominent. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hermione starts knitting for SPEW. In her fervor to free house elves, she knits hats and hides them, hoping an elf will unwittingly pick it up and be freed. The first hats are not recognizable as such, she knitted them slowly, by hand, since over the summer the students are forbidden to practice magic. She looks forward to producing hats more quickly with the use of magic back at Hogwarts, even if Harry and Ron object to her methods of freeing elves (255). Hermione seems like any knitter, finding time to stitch while talking to a friend, although the floating needles clicking by themselves is less common. She does expand her skills, and tries a pair of socks that are also barely recognizable (295). It does not take her long to improve though. Near the first outing to the village, Harry notices that her socks and hats no longer look like the same thing (334). By fall, Hermione makes scarves, too. Her preferred yarn is wool (350). She places her wool clothes around the dormitory, and we see that they are being taken. Unfortunately, they are all confiscated by Dobby. He still has an unusual sense of style, wearing every hat stacked like a tower. He also layers the socks and scarves. Dobby gives some clothes to Winky the house elf, but she resents them. The other elves refuse to clean the Gryffindor den, for fear of picking up clothes. Dobby takes the job on himself and gladly takes the clothes, too (385). Hermione is forced to put her knitting aside during the holiday season. She is busy, but worries about the state of the house elves. Harry is nice enough not to tell her that Dobby is wearing all her creations (451). Hermione is not the only one who knits, though. Mrs. Weasley still gives the Weasley children and Harry sweaters for Christmas, but Percy has the nerve to return it (502). After the holiday break, Hermione picks up her needles (527). However, the year progresses and she has less free time because of approaching exams (706). Then the friends become entangled in another adventure and there are more important things to think about than knitting.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic, 2003.

The most interesting knitting tidbit is revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince . Dumbledore likes to peruse Muggle knitting patterns while in the loo (73)! Mrs. Weasley's sweaters are put to good use on the first outing to Hogsmeade (240). Once again the sweaters are said to be "hand-knit" and I wonder if they truly are, or if they just were not purchased from a store, but made with magic by Ron's mother. A muggle may never know, but I think she knits with needles in hand. During Christmas vacation, while the Weasley family, Harry, Hermione and Fleur sit by the tree, Mrs. Weasley becomes nostalgic when hearing a song that she and her husband danced to as teenagers. Her eyes become misty and she dabs them with her knitting (330). To me this implies that the knitting was in her hands, because putting yarn that is attached to bewitched, flying needles near her eyes would be pretty risky. For Christmas this year, she makes Harry a sweater with a sizable snitch on it. As everyone is with Mrs. Weasley on Christmas, everybody dons her sweaters for the day, with the exception of Fleur, who did not receive one (339). It seems Hermione is preoccupied in this book, she is less interested in setting out clothes for elves, probably due to her social life. We shall have to wait to see what happens in the conclusive book of the series. I'm certain Mrs. Weasley will still knit, but we will have to look for other references, though it is easy to forget about knitting when the plot of the books is as exciting as these.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York: Scholastic, 2005.

Harry Potter, characters, names, and related indicia trademarks of Warner Bros. Harry Potter publishing rights Copyright J.K. Rowling

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy 50th Birthday to my mom!

Here she is in 1955 with my grandmother.

Fifty happy, healthy more years to you, Mom!

Congratulations!

One of my best friends had a baby on July 9th and she's beautiful! Welcome to the world, Little Queen B!

Little Man's Bee Hat

Welcome to the first posting at Funky Moe's.

I have only one finished project with pictures so far. I made the Bzz Hat for Queen Bees from S'n'B Nation by Debbie Stoller. The hat was originally for me, but while I knitted it, The Little Man started eyeballing it. He and I waited while Punky (who is named so because of his sense of style- think blue and black hair one day, pink the next) had piano lessons and karate class; I knitted the hat. I tried it on him at karate to give him something to do. It still had the needles in it, but he looked so adorable that I had to give it to him. Click on the photos for a better look at the bee buttons. I purchased them at Michael's Arts and Crafts. I'm making another hat for myself. I am eagerly awaiting the 16th of July for two reasons. First, The new Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling comes out, and my local yarn store is having a 40% off sale on everything in the store. I want to buy yarn for a few upcoming projects, a House Scarf and a Kittyville hat from S'n'B by Debbie Stoller.