THE MAD HATTER

Cupcake hats are still very popular, and I make an awful lot of them. Sometimes I make matching cupcake mittens to go with them. I make so many of them, in fact, that it is nice to be able to knit something else occasionally. Recently I had an order for some fun hats, including these:

Love the dimples!




Ben is modeling a blue dog hat, which I designed from a picture of the popular children's cartoon dog, Blue.




Here is the first owl hat I designed, which looks quite a lot like the great barn owl my kids found a year or so ago, with the wide, staring eyes.






This hat I think is cuter. I made it a little smaller, made the eyes looking up, and put tassles instead of pompoms on the top.













This snowman set is a favorite of mine, because I haven't ever seen anything like it and it is a completely original design.

Honey, I Shrunk the Cupcakes!


Here is my latest variation on the cupcake theme--miniature cupcake pincushion magnets. Each one has a knitted and felted top, a magnet on the bottom, and a knitted sleeve for the cup portion. The inside is dense, felted wool.




The cupcakes measure about 1 3/4 inches by 1 3/4 inches. The sprinkles are actually pins.



These little cupcakes are sitting on an upside-down candy dish.

I just have to share this little hat. Someone sent me a picture of a hat like this and asked if I could create one. I love a challenge! This was the result. I think it looks a lot like Strawberry Shortcake's poofy hat. One of these days I'll have to play with other color combinations.

Teacup Pincushions! I saw these on a website and just had to try making them. I think they turned out great! They're fun to make. Not hard, but a little time consuming. They're made of felted wool from recycled sweaters. The part that takes the longest is making the I-cords for the handles and saucer rim. The instructions say to use a little knitting machine. Well, I don't have one of those, so I make mine on two double-pointed needles.

Yellow, springy skirt, slippers, hat and bolero set. This is a special order that i knit for a photographer named Sue. The skirt was pretty easy. I found a gathered lace edging from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge book for the bottom ruffle. Then, based on the hip measurements of the model, I simply knit a tube. Eyelet holes around the waistband allowed me to thread in a knit cord for keeping it snug. White crocheted edging and embroidered daisies completes the look. I added embroidered daisies to the ends of the sweater sleeves as well, after taking the picture. I think it turned out really cute. I hope it fits well!


A closer view of the bolero. I didn't have a pattern for this, so I used a regular cardigan sweater pattern and figured out how to make the bottom rounded. I crocheted around the edges in white, to match the skirt. The sleeves are supposed to be 3/4 sleeves. I knit I-cords for the frogs, and formed them into the twists you see them in, then stitched them onto the sweater. I learned how to do that from Nicky Epstein's book, Knitted Embellishments. I love that book! Again, I added some embroidery to the sleeves, which is not in the photo.

This hat is another one that she ordered. It was actually designed by another customer for her daughter. I like the combined ear flaps and funky tasseled top.

More knitted cupcakes! I spent most of today packaging these little gems to be sold at a store in Florida, called Cupcakes-a-Go-Go, a cupcake specialty shop that is taking them on consignment. I think these appliques look really cute in their packages. It's a little hard to see them, due to the glare, but they are backed by patterned paper.




Here's another view of them. They are knit out of cotton yarn, and would look just adorable on a sweater, hat, bib, coat, apron, mittens, etc.



And, of course, they look very sweet on hair bows too!



this is one of my knitted cupcake hats. Instead of sprinkles and a cherry on top, I made a rosette for the top. I noticed that the cupcake shop makes them like this.



I found this great yarn for the roses, which makes them multi-colored.