Just Ducky!

My hairdresser, Tina, recently asked me if I would be willing to knit a baby hat for a little girl.  She needed a gift and thought a baby hat would be perfect.  Hmmm, let's see.  Do I want to knit for a little girl?  You betcha!  My problem was trying to decide which hat to make.  At first, I thought I would just go for my standard little berry hat.

This is such a sweet little hat and knits up so quick.  It's a free pattern on Ravelry called "Berry Baby Hat".  It's also available here.  It uses worsted weight yarn, like the Cascade Superwash 220 pictured above.

I knew Tina would like it, but I also had this ball of Crystal Palace's Mochi Plus in "Baby Face" that I thought would be cute and why not give her a choice?  The problem was finding just the right hat.  Ravelry came to the rescue again with Sharon Mooney's "Just Ducky" hat pattern.

I love, love, love this pattern.  It's my new favorite!  The brim is ribbed so it will stretch as baby grows and that ruffle is just too cute.  I did modify the top of the hat.  The pattern calls for it to be purled and so the decreases are obviously purled too.  I decided to knit the top instead.  Also, the original pattern has a "ball" on the top and I decided to do an I-cord loop.

It looks so much cuter in person, trust me!  Sharon sells the pattern download on Ravelry for $4.00 and it includes instructions to make some matching booties, which is more than reasonable, in my opinion.  The hat pattern alone is worth every penny!  I first discovered her patterns on ebay a few years ago and always found them to be very well written.  I've knit quite a few of her designs over the years, so I was delighted to come across her again.  The fact that she is also a nice person is just a bonus!

Remember the owl mitts from a few posts back?  Well, I've redeemed myself with the other two boys.  Here are the latest ones to roost in Connecticut:

Oh, guess which hat Tina choose?  Both!! Wouldn't you?