The Nappy Covers (and matching hats)

One of the most recent projects I finished, and my first paid project, was a collection of photo props for a local photographer (Paul Barsby, Tunbridge Wells). I'll do a post for each of the items, my favourite of which were these adorable little nappy covers.

For the white one, I purchased the pattern from ezcareknits on etsy but I accidentally bought the wrong size. I bought size 0-3 months, when I actually needed newborn. I could have just purchased the newborn size from etsy but in order to save money, I adapted the pattern myself, to make it a little smaller. Because the white pattern includes the little duck motif (worked using garter stitch on a stocking stitch background), I didn't want to have to shrink this down so I left it out altogether and just made the smaller ones plain. I bought the buttons from my local Hobbycraft store and for the wool I just used a standard double knit. The pink one was super soft, but the white and navy were quite itchy and woolly. If you were going to make these for your baby to wear day to day then I would obviously recommend using a luxury soft yarn, such as Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, but as they were just photo props and the babies will only be wearing them for a few minutes, it doesn't really matter.

The photographer also wanted matching long-tailed pixie style hats. I couldn't find a suitable pattern for these so I made one up. I was pretty happy with how they turned out, though for a small newborn they were a teeny bit big. Now this wouldn't have been a problem when my son Beau was born, because he weighted 9lb 7oz and had a huge head (which the midwife who stitched me up afterwards not so politely told me had done a huge amount of damage too, but that's a whole other story!) but for the tiny little 6lb girl who was the first baby to model one of these hats for the photographer, it did look a little baggy on her precious dainty head. A simple way to get around this if you know you need a smaller one would be to drop down a size in knitting needles. Anyway, here is the pattern for the hats

Please feel free to use this pattern, but if you're going to share it, please have the courtesy to credit and link back to my blog (www.my-nameispurl.blogspot.co.uk)

Long Pixie Hat Knitting Pattern Newborn

Straight knitting needles: Size 7 US (4.5mm) and size 9 US (5.5mm) knitting needles

Darning Needle for finishing

Row counter (optional)

Sewing needle

Abbreviations:

CO -Cast On

BO -Bind Off

K2tog -Knit together

Sts -Stitches

RS -Right Side

WS -Wrong Side

This pattern is broken out into sections making it simple to follow.

Starting -Cast on 70 with size 7 (4.5mm)

Ribbed Section: Rows 1-8

Rows 1: *K2, P2* Repeat across row

Row 2: *K2, P2* Repeat Across row

Rows 3-8: Repeat rows 1 & 2

Continuing: Change to Size 9 (5.5mm) US Knitting Needles

Row 1: Knit across

Row 2: Purl across

Row 3-14: Repeat rows 1 & 2

Row 15: *K2Tog, K5* Repeat to end of row (60 stitches)

Row 16: Purl across

Row 17: *K2Tog, K4* Repeat to end of row (50 stitches)

Row 18: Purl across

Row 19: *K2Tog, K3* Repeat to end of row (40 stitches)

Row 20: *P2, P2Tog* Repeat to end of row (30 stitches)

Row 21: *K2Tog, K1* Repeat to end of row (20 stitches)

Row 22: P2Tog across row (10 stitches)

Begin Tail Section:

Row 1: Knit across

Row 2: Purl across

Rows 3-40 Repeat rows 1 & 2

Decrease Tail Section:

Row 1: K2Tog, K1, K2Tog, K1, K2Tog, K2Tog (6 Stitches)

Row 2: Purl Across

Row 3: Knit across

Row 4: Purl across

Rows 5-54: Repeat rows 1 and 2

Decrease & Complete Tail Section:

Row 1: K2Tog across row (3 stitches)

Row 2: Purl across

Row 3: K2Tog, K

Row 4: Bind off

Make a pompom approx 6cm diameter and attach firmly to the end of the tail. 

I added contrasting stripes to mine but you can do it however you choose. For the stripes, after the rib section was finished, I did 2 rows of main colour, then began my stripe pattern of 2 rows contrast colour, 6 rows main colour.

Here is how they look as a set, pretty damn cute I think