This year, I have improved upon the turkey hat, and I’m sharing the pattern. turkey hat pattern pdf

Apologies for the lack of photos; I’ll get a photo session together in the next few days, but don’t want to miss getting the pattern out in time for Thanksgiving!

The pattern is sized for a 12 month old. You can size it up or down by changing the size of the hat; just use an even number of stitches and adjust the decreases after row 5 to match the number of stitches you have, adding or deleting rows to work down to 12 stitches. If you go smaller, I would still keep at least 16 stitches as the base for the legs, to maintain structural integrity, and maybe not do as many even rows at 36 stitches (rows 6-15). There are many natural variations in the turkey world, so whatever you come up with will be fabulous.

Last year’s hat was done in Red Heart Soft acrylic yarn (because the idea came to me at around 8:00 p.m., which meant Michaels); this year I used Cascade 220 wool, with Wool-Ease for the bones because I wanted a brighter white than you usually get with wool. I’m intrigued by the idea of doing a felted version of this; if anyone wants to give it a go, I’d love to see the results!

Last year’s hat:

I knit this for my friend’s baby this week. Dennis says it’s because I think of all children as mannequins for my knitting and sewing projects, and babies are the best because they don’t know when they’re wearing a totally ridiculous sweater.

The chart is provided; it’s 62 stitches across, and could also make a really nifty hat or adult sweater with some tweaking. You could just add some extra empty seats to Tom Servo’s left.I don’t make any promises about the quality of my charts, so if you feel like tweaking something, it’s probably an improvement.

Baby sweater in action:

Technically, he is wearing it backwards, and you know what? He does not care! Because he’s a rebel!

Say, is that Manos: the Hand of Fate behind him? Is it summoning dark forces, or just keeping him from rolling off the bed? No one can say.


Pattern
chart pdf

Size: baby, about 23″ around

Gauge: 22 st/4″ on #6 needles

I used Numero Uno by Lana Grossa, which is a machine washable wool. I used two balls of black and two balls of green, and I probably have enough left over to crank out a little stripey hat at some point.

This is not the project to take on if you’re new to intarsia or new to sweaters, unless you have a really good reference book next to you. I’m assuming you know the basics here, and hoping that you don’t know so much that my own ignorance will be glaringly obvious.

With black yarn, CO `124. Work in stockinette. Place markers 62 stitches apart, to show where the pattern begins.

I also found it helped to count out the design and put smaller markers in useful spots, like where Crow’s neck or Tom’s head are supposed to be. That way I couldn’t get too lost in the design while I was working, and could always be double-checking to see if everything was hitting in the right place. I still screwed it up in a few places and the front and back of the sweater don’t match exactly, but that’s not surprising at all.

When working the pattern, be sure that you’re reading right to left so that Crow is on the right. I, uh, didn’t do that the first time, and had to rip back to the top of the seats. Couldn’t have a baby growing up thinking that Tom sits on the right. That would be wrong.

Eventually you will be past the pattern and working in just green yarn, so keep going until you have 6.75 inches knit from the edge.

Now, the raglan shaping. Ooooh baby.

The sweater is exactly the same for the front and the back, but by now you may have decided on a favorite side, so call that one front. You’re going to put one set of 62 stitches on a holder and knit the front.

Working over the 62 stitches, bind off two stitches at the beginning of the row. Turn and bind off 2 stitches, p across.

Next row, and every k row: k3, sl k1 psso, k across to last 5 st, k2tog, k3, turn
All p rows: p across

Keep doing this until you have 20 st left, and then bind those suckers off.

Return to the stitches on the holder, attach yarn and do the same thing. Set this lovely almost-sweater aside and think about some sleeves.

Sleeves! We love ‘em!

With black, CO 38 stitches.

Work in stockinette for 4 rows, attach green yarn.

Row 5: k2, M1, knit across to last 2 st, M1, k2

From here, work in 2-row stripes, alternating green and black. Repeat row 5 every 6 rows, which is easy to count off since it happens every three stripes. Stop increasing when you have 54 stitches. Then just keep on stripin’ until the whole thing is 8.25 inches long, ending with a wrong side row. You know what that means…raglan!

Continue in the stripe pattern.

Bind off two stitches at the beginning of the next row. Turn and bind off 2 stitches, p across.

Next row, and every k row: k3, sl k1 psso, k across to last 5 st, k2tog, k3, turn
All p rows: p across

Keep doing this until you have 14 st left, and then bind them off. Realize you have to make a second sleeve. Make the second one just like the first; you can match up the stripes to be sure.

Assemble by…uh…sewing the sleeves to the body. I found it easiest to sew the sleeve seams and then set them in as the little tubes they are. Leave one side of the front open for a placket. I did two rows of single crochet around the placket and neck, making chain buttonloops on the second row. If I were more ambitious, I would have made a Satellite of Love button out of Fimo or something, but I didn’t, and used boring old round black buttons. I embroidered the SOL in split stitch on the upper back.

I got the raglan shaping proportions from the embroidered raglan sweater in the excellent book Knitting for Two, which you should totally buy because it’s got some really good patterns, including the tie-front maternity sweater on the back cover. I made that for the mst3k baby’s mom. I should get a picture of that. It’s the project that made me become a bit obsessed with Rowan Wool Cotton, but that’s another matter.

My first MST3K knitting project was supposed to be a baby blanket, but I ran out of yarn so I felted it and it’s going to be a big throw pillow instead. I’ve got the chart here if anyone wants something that’s around 140 stitches across.