Pumpkin Head

Here's a teaser for the baby gift that I'll be giving my very first niece or nephew, who is due to be born in early June. Keen readers will already know that I've been spending the last four months working on a blanket for the little sucker, a blanket that needs to be blocked, but has been sitting in a ball on my work shelf for the past two weeks. Anyhow, I did manage to whip up this little hat to match and here are the specs:

Little Pumpkin from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hats
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Worsted in "Pumpkin"
Needle: US #6 DPNs
Mods: Obviously a yarn substitution and since I was using a worsted (albeit a slim worsted) rather than the recommended DK I knit the newborn size even though I'm guessing this fits more like 0-6 mos.

Okay, I should have read the Itty Bitty errata page before today, because I now realize that the instructions for the stem are botched, but I think it still looks okay in garter even though it should be stockinette. I'm not totally crazy about how the stem/leaf looks, but that's got to do with my cruddy finishing skills. A details woman, I am not. I like these cute hats, but I think I may also make them a good old umbilical cord hat for more everyday use once we find out the sex of the baby.

And apologies for the lack of a great picture. The Misti Alpaca is so soft and lovely, there was no way this hat would take a good picture without a model to fill it out. And since Ruby's head is too big and her baby dolls' heads are to small, this Care Monkey (he came with a real name, but we call him Leon) had to step in, even though his football-shaped head kind of distorts the hat. But you get the idea.