Jack O'Lantern Finger Puppet Pattern

Cast on 10 stitches with orange yarn.
Rows 1-8: Stockinette stitch
Row 9: Knit 2 tog, K6, K2 tog (8 stitches)
Row 10-12: Stockinette stitch
Row 13: K2 tog across (4 stitches)
Gather together.
Embroider face
Sew up seam
Pick up three stitches at the top with green yarn
Do i-cord for 3 rows
Knit 2 tog, Knit 1
K2 tog, and close

Ghost Finger Puppet Pattern

I made a dozen of these.  Now back to making regular people finger puppets.

Here's the pattern for the ghost.
 
Cast on 10 stitches with white yarn.
Knit stockinette for 6 rows
Row 7: Knit 2 together, Knit 6, Knit 2 together (8 stitches)
Row 8: Purl
Row 9: Knit
Row 10: Purl
Row: 11: Knit 2 together, Knit 4, Knit 2 together (6 stitches)
Row 12: Purl
Row 13: Knit
Row 14: Purl
Row15: Knit 2 together across (3 stitches)

Cut yarn,,thread through remaining stitches.
Embroider eyes and mouth with black yarn.
Sew seam with white yarn.

Monster Finger Puppets

Here are 20 little monster finger puppets.   I've used the same pattern, just changed the colors and added a zig-zag mouth.

Finger Puppets

I thought a long time about what I could make with small amounts of yarn that would work well for charity giving, had free patterns, didn't involve a lot of weaving in ends, and was fun to make!

My answer was---finger puppets! There are many free patterns on the Internet to make animals-- here and here are two examples-- and monsters like these as well as people. I have decided to start with the ones found here. I'll modify the hair and clothing from other patterns I've found so I'll be able to make dozens of them, no two alike. And because it's close to Halloween I'll be making some monster ones as well. Fun!

And what will I do with all these finger puppets? Give them away to the phlebotomy departments of a children's hospital so that children can be given one when they have blood work done!   I'll be sending mine to the Doernbecher Children's Hospital Phlebotomy Department in Portland.

Here is a photo of the first eight:

And Finally, Santa Hats!

Pattern

DK yarn in white and red
Size 2 dpns

Cast on 40 stitches with white yarn and join.
Purl 1 round
Knit 1 round
Repeat until total of 8 rounds

Break off white yarn and use red yarn
Knit 15 rounds, end with knit 2 tog
*Knit 5, knit 2tog*  end knit 5 ( 35 stitches)
Knit around
*Knit 4, k 2tog* end knit 5  (30 stitches)
Knit around
*Knit 3, k 2 tog*  (24  stitches)
Knit around
*Knit 2 k 2 tog*  (18 stitches)
Knit around
*Knit 1, k 2 tog* (12 stitches)
Knit around
*Knit 2 tog* (   stitches)
*Knit 2 tog* (   stitches)

Last Four Hats Done!

Six Patriotic Preemie Hats

Knitting Goals for the Rest of September

My knitting goals for the rest of the month are:

1. Finish the last of the 100 preemie hats for Doernbecher Children's Hospital  NICU.  I'm knitting hat #92 now so it shouldn't be long.

2. Mail the hats and mittens I've finished to The Maine Mitten Project.  I plan on working on more of these for next year, probably starting in January.

3. Knit and assemble finger puppets to send to the Phlebotomy Department at Doernbecher. I will put up photos and links on this blog once I have some to show.

4. Knit Merridy, an adorable tunic/dress for Violet.  I may wait to start on this in October,but I want to finish it before Violet's second birthday on November 1st.

5. Work on socks (see another of my blogs, Knitting Only Socks.

I also want to decide on what sweaters I want to knit for Isabella in the next  few months as well as Violet's sibling, due  in the early Spring.

Six More Little Hats

Six Patterned Hats in DIfferent Colors

And Here's Another Six Preemie Hats

Six Preemie Hats from Fingering Weight Yarn

Three Plain Preemie Hats and Three Acorn Preemie Hats

The pattern for the Acorn Hats is free on Ravelry and can be found here.

Six Fingering Weight Yarn Preemie Hats

Three Pumpkin and Three Tomato Hats

Preemie Tomato (or Apple) Hat

Cast on 48 stitches in red, join in the round.

Knit 24 rounds

Attach green yarn

Rnd 1:  K 2 in red, K 3 in green.  (K 5 in red, K 3 in green)   Repeat in ( )  End K 3 red

Rnd 2:  K 1 in red,  K 5 in green. (K 3 in red, K 5 in green)  Repeat in ( ) End K 2 red

Rnd 3:  K 7 in green, K 1 in red.  Repeat. Cut red.

Green only:

Rnd 4:  K3tog, K5 (36 stitches)

Rnd 5: Knit

Rnd 6: K3tog, K3 (24 stitches)

Rnd7:  Knit

Rnd 8: K2 tog, K2 (18 stitches)

Rnd 9: K2 tog, K1 (12 stitches)

Rnd 10: K2 tog (6 stitches)

Rnd 11: Knit

Rnd 12: Knit

Rnd 13: Knit

Rnd 14: K2 tog

Rnd 15: Knit

Preemie Pumpkin Hat

I unfortunately have lost the pumpkin hat patterns I'd used previously and I had trouble finding a pattern I liked for a pumpkin hat and so I devised this one.  I have enough orange yarn to make three and I'm going to modify the pattern a bit to make tomato or, if you rather, apple ones.

Cast on 48 stitches, join in the round.

Knit 7 rounds

Knit 16 rounds of K6, P2

Knit 1 round

Attach green yarn

Rnd 1:  K 2 in orange, K 3 in green.  (K 5 in orange, K 3 in green)   Repeat in ( )  End K 3 orange

Rnd 2:  K 1 in orange,  K 5 in green. (K 3 in orange, K 5 in green)  Repeat in ( ) End K 2 orange

Rnd 3:  K 7 in green, K 1 in orange.  Repeat. Cut orange

Green only:

Rnd 4:  K3tog, K5 (36 stitches)

Rnd 5: Knit

Rnd 6: K3tog, K3 (24 stitches)

Rnd7:  Knit

Rnd 8: K2 tog, K2 (18 stitches)

Rnd 9: K2 tog, K1 (12 stitches)

Rnd 10: K2 tog (6 stitches)

Rnd 11: Knit

Rnd 12: Knit

Rnd 13: Knit

Rnd 14: K2 tog

Rnd 15: Knit

Another Six Preemie Hats

Three hats knit in Beanstalk pattern and three knit in the following simple pattern: Rnd 1: P1, K1 Rnds 2-3: Knit

Six Beanstalk Preemie Hats

These hats were knit from this free pattern, Beanstalk Preemie Hats, on Ravelry.

Six Camo Preemie Hats

Not everyone feels comfortable with the idea of camo preemie hats, but the NICU nurses who write to thank me for my donations always specifically mention these hats, telling me they're popular with military families.  In particular, the fathers with preemie boys prefer them to pastel hats.  Because of that I always make sure to include a few.

And These Make Thirty!

I posted that I'd knit 30 preemie hats for my goal of 100 preemie hats this summer, but I'd only posted photos of 24.  Here is the photo of the last six I knit.

Distracted for a Bit and Now Back on Track!

In the last few weeks I've been working more than usual, took a much needed vacation at the Oregon Coast with my husband, and finished two sweaters for my almost two-year old granddaughter,Violet. Her cousin, five-month old Isabella, is also going to need more sweaters this winter. Violet is going to have a sibling in March so that means I'll get to knit even more sweet little newborn hats, sweaters, and mittens.

Here are photos of Violet's two sweaters.   Details can be found on my Ravelry account where I'm MoniqueL.

I'm on preemie hat #31 which means I have a ways to go to get to my 100 hat total.  I've given myself a break, however.  Fall term at the  university where I work doesn't start until September 29th  so I'm declaring it summer until that date.  The Maine Mitten Project, however, wants their donations for this year by September 26th so I'll have to mail them earlier that week.  I need to print out and attach tags to each one and I still have two hats and one pair of mittens on the needles and they'll need  to be finished and tagged too.

Oh, and I almost forgot!  I've figured out how to use all the tiny little scraps of yarn I've been collecting. Finger puppets! I've knit quite a few of them but haven't sewn them together or embroidered faces on them yet.  I've found several websites with free patterns (people, bunnies, bears, kitties, monsters are a few) and I'll post links to those soon along with photos.  So, what are these for?  Phlebotomists in children's hospitals give them to children for finger pricks and blood collection.  Awesome!

Teal Mittens with Orange Stripes

Gray Mittens with Red Stripes

A pair of mittens out of wool for The Maine Mitten Project

Infant Mitts III

More infant mitts knit from leftover sock yarns.   This is a good pattern to use very small amounts of yarn although I have too much of it I'll probably need to figure out how to use several balls in one item.   Perhaps mittens with stripes  for a small child?   I'll take a look at project pages in Ravelry for different mitten patterns for other ideas of variations and color combinations.

Another Twelve Preemie Hats

Mistletoe Mittens

These mittens are made of left-over sock yarn.

Twelve Preemie Hats Done

 Here are the first twelve preemie hats done. It takes me one to two hours to complete each one.

Peppermint Stick Hat

Variegated Teal Mittens

I used the very last of my Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted yarn in the Tormented Teal colorway for these mittens.  I'd earlier made a hat of this yarn for the Mitten Project as well.

Turquoise Mittens

I've knit a number of hats for The Maine Mitten Project and I'll continue doing that but I want to send mittens too.   Here's one pair.

Preemie Hats for Doernbecher Children's Hospital

Making all of those little preemie hats for Albany General Hospital has started me making them again. The ones I'm knitting now will go to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland.  I'm going to make some relatively simple, one-color ones, but as I begin to run out of yarn I'll start making some which are stranded  or striped or which use simple fair-isle bands.

Red and White Mittens

I love the classic combination of red and white, especially for mittens, but I'm starting to run out of red yarn so this may be one of the last projects with that color.   This mitten pattern is based on Mushroom Mittens (pattern information here).  I added a few random stripes to  make it more interesting.

Baby Mittens

A few years ago I knit these mittens out of sock yarn and donated them to an auction for a Food Drive sponsored by the university library where I work.  Mary, the acquisitions editor for the university press, bought them because she loved them and kept them on her desk to admire.   Not long ago an author she was working saw them and commented on how much she loved them.  It turns out she was having a baby and so Mary gave them to her.  The author lives in Colorado so they will fit her baby just about when the snow begins to fall.   Mary believes she was meant to hold on to those mittens until they found the perfect home.  I think so too.

Preemie Hats XI

The last of the preemie hats.  I'll be mailing all of them later this week.

Preemie Hats X

Wild Mushroom Cap

Inspired by some hats in the project section for the Mushroom Cap, I knit this hat and what better name for it than Wild Mushroom?  This is another good way to use up scraps and I'll certainly knit it again perhaps using DK wool for a baby hat.

Preemie Hats IX

Preemie Hats VIII

Preemie Hats VII

I love choosing color combinations and red with blue is one of  my favorites.

Preemie Hats VI

Another six little preemie hats. 

Preemie Hats V

I knit these hats using the formula method.   For sock yarn I'll cast on 36 stitches with size 3 dpns and for fingering weight I'll cast on 44 with size 2 dpns.  I usually knit 8-12 rounds of ribbing--sometimes k2, p2, sometimes k1, p1. I'll vary that my occasionally knitting the knit stitches through the back loop.

The body of the hat is 20-30 rounds.  I've knit a few plain hats but they are boring to knit so I'll try different ideas.  A round or two of purl stitches in a different color, a round or two of purl stitches in the same yarn, a stitch pattern that can be easily divisible into the stitches (4 stitch patterns work well).  I often use stitch patterns I've used for socks I've knit  (see another of my blogs, Knitting Only Socks).  Simple Fair Isle patterns just above the ribbing would also work well.

I end with a top knot or an I-cord or a pom-pom.  It's easy to experiment here because these hats are so small.

The weather has been a bit cooler lately which makes it perfect for knitting.   I'm working two days this week and I've gone in early to have some quiet time to work on these little hats.

Preemie Hats IV

And more hats, one with a small fair-isle pattern above  the ribbing. 

Preemie Hats III

I work on the preemie hats a few hours every day.  I prefer to end them with little topknots or i-cords although some just call for pom-poms on the top.   It takes me a couple of hours or less to knit one depending on how complicated it is and most are simple.  I knit at my desk, outside listening to the birds singing, in the car when I'm a passenger.  I had a week off work last week because it was Intersession Week and I'll only be working a few afternoons a week during the summer which will mean more time to knit!

Black Sheep Gathering

This is the first year I've gone to the Black Sheep Gathering although I've lived in the area from before its beginning.  I didn't go to buy yarn.  My goal this summer is to use up as much of my yarn stash as possible after all. I did, however, pick up business cards with the idea of purchasing some later.

I'm going to have fun this week visiting a  lot of websites!

There were several teams in the Sheep to Shawl competition.  Wouldn't it be fun to learn  how to use a spinning wheel and a loom? First of all ,though, I'd have to talk my husband into the idea.

There was lots and lots of beautiful yarn and yarn petting was encouraged.   I tried not to drool.

 

There was a variety of items made from wool from classics to whimsical.

I enjoyed the sheep show especially. I really do love sheep.

 When we lived in the country, a few miles from where we live now, we had a small herd of them.   We had almost eight acres and much of it was grass and the sheep kept it "mowed" for us. There were both sheep and goats at the gathering.

Many workshops were offered, including learning dozens of ways to cast on, Russian style continental knitting, and how to shear sheep.  And there were workshops  on Latvian fingerless mitts and Aran cardigans from the top down, both taught  by Beth Brown-Reinsel.  To die for!   Here is a link to her website. 

Oh, yes! I'll be back next year!