After several instances where Joel has raided the dressing up box, and come out dressed like a (albeit, a bit warped) fairy or pumpkin princess, I decided we needed more boy-focussed dressing up outfits in the box.

Postman Pat, who we’ve all had a lot of fun with, was the first addition:

And following that, we’ve moved on to the fairly predictable pirate gear, which has caught on very well. So when I was flicking through ravelry looking for something to knit for Joel, the skull hat seemed like an obvious choice.

This is a rare proper success, with only one minor hiccup, which I’ll explain later. I got the yarn on Monday, from Wigan market – a handy source of yarn when at work, now being I think the only yarn emporium in the centre of Wigan, following the retreat of The Black Sheep in a westerly direction (to Southport, of all places). It’s called “Wool Enriched” but I remembered it as “hint of wool” for a couple of days before I re-checked the label, which sounded so much more poetic. The enrichment goes to a full 25% – so there’s your extra warmth. I got started straight away, being keen & all, and in my taking pictures in the snow session, Joel’s hat was up first:

As you can see I hadn’t got very far at this point – this was Tuesday, the first snow day in a very long week. There’s a plain lining which is turned up inside – this grew so quickly (thanks to the speed-knitting I learned in September) that I had to tink back 4 or 5 rows. It turns out, I should have taken out one more row – it’s a row too long, but it’s only obvious to me, I think. Then for the first colourwork I’ve done in a very long time.

Again here, the speed knitting helped, as I was able to hold the navy over my right hand & “throw” those stitches, and the yellow in my left, and “pick” those ones. See?

And so it grew very quickly, and by friday was ready to be worn.

So far he has offered one to my mother in law (except hers will need to be pink, apparently) and has speculated that everyone at nursery will want one. I have to say, that I’m really quite proud of it. More colourwork will follow, I confidently predict.

And, in other news, I put the new playroom curtains up tonight.

Brill, eh?!