Wednesday, February 22, 2012

WIP Wednesday - Perry the Platypus Hat and Bernat Mystery CAL

When I make hats for my kids, sometimes their friends like to put in an "order" for a hat for themselves. If I can use yarn from my stash, and I have the time, I'm happy to make hats for their friends. Often, they will specify color preferences. This time, one of my daughter's friends wanted a hat that was the same color as Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb. No problem! I did happen to have that color (or very close to that color) in my stash. Next, he wanted to have Perry's eyes on the hat. Ugh. Okay...well, I have black and white, so...but how? Intarsia? 3 strand Fair Isle? 3 color double knit? Then, before I got started, he wanted to have a hat with Perry's bill for the brim. I looked up photos for examples and didn't like what I saw (plus, they were usually in crochet, not knit), so I decided to just start low on the hat with the bill and work up from there. First, I had to make a pattern for Perry, so after downloading some knitting graph paper, I worked on that for about 20 minutes, then I got to work.

So far, I have started this and unraveled it completely at least four times. The farthest I have gotten was just past the halfway point of the bill. I have tried Fair Isle, but I was having a hard time keeping the strands loose enough. I tried double knit, but really, the yarn is way too thick once I get to more than 2 colors. I've tried different methods of wrapping and stranding. Next, I will be attempting Intarsia, even though in many places, there is only a one stitch color change. Ugh. Any suggestions?


I am also doing the Bernat Mystery CAL. Here is my progress so far:



I'm using Waverly for Bernat yarn. My main color is Celadon in the Past Perfect line, color A is Antique in the Town & Country line, color B is Stone Brown in the Town and Country line, color C is Birch White in the Simplicity line and Color D is Incense in the Beautiful Things line.

I am still working on the sweater for my husband. It isn't much further along than it was last week since I kind of got distracted by these new projects.

I'm also linking to:  The Crochet Way, Ambassador Crochet, and Yarn Along




6 comments:

grandmastatus said...

I would suggest doing the pupils in duplicate stitch. Maybe even all of the eyes. Or, you could always cut out felt pieces for the eyes: I've found that felt is quite easy to sew onto knit fabric and ends up looking nice.
There are also googly eyes. Very fun, especially when compared to starting over a hat 4 times!
Good luck.

(lia) said...

I love the Bernat CAL progress! I wanted to participate in that but I'm on a stash down and didn't have enough alternate yarn to do it. It is lovely though!

Jessica Snell said...

Golly, I wish I had suggestions for you - that sounds utterly frustrating!

Sandy said...

Love the beginning of your mystery cal, the pretty green and the colors you're showing to go with it look great.

Unknown said...

Your drawing TOTALLY matches the look of Perry the Platypus (my kids love Phineas and Ferb)! Very fun.

I found your site as part of Ginny's yarn along. If you want to check out my site, this is a good week... I'm giving away some a crochet book set with yarn, hooks, etc. on my site today. You can check it out at-
http://twyste.com/2012/02/22/yarn-along-i-won/

Unknown said...

First, you are a saint to even take this one! Second, I "second" the duplicate stitch suggestion. It will be awesome once done.