Baby hat and other news

Well, the holidays are over and I took a little longer to update than I thought I would, I'm sorry. The holidays are a big deal in my family. I haven't knit any new owls, but I probably will shortly because my friend just had a baby. I'm knitting her a hat first, Mandie Harrington's Swirl Hat with Bernat Baby Jacquards, in rosebud. I'm knitting it on size 2 needles, and to get the size right I opted to follow the 12m-2y size instructions, since I like the look of the very fine stitches for a baby hat.

My baby hat in progress.

I'm undecided yet whether I should follow up with matching booties or perhaps an owl or small teddy bear. I never liked teddy bears much myself.

Then next in my queue, I have to do a few things for a trade with a friend. I need to knit her a small doll that she can have as a keychain or phone charm. I'm thinking a very simple and easily modified pattern like this one will be best. Then I need to knit her some cat ears, a tail, legwarmers, and a scarf for her cosplay as Cheshire Grell, from the anime Black Butler.

This is Cheshire Grell, though I don't believe this is an official artwork.

So I'll likely update this post with pictures of the finished hat, and do an entry dedicated to her cosplay.

There's a few things on my list after that, like making a pattern to knit a Kikwi from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, a Totoro pouch and a Narwhal for my friend Zaphy, and a sweatervest for my man's birthday in September. (I fear no sweater curse, we are planning to marry.)

Also, I got my first knitting book, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, by Ann Budd. I'll actually get my hands on it tomorrow when my friend (the one I'm knitting the cheshire set for, actually) drops it off, since she was so kind to let me use her Barnes&Noble membership and have it delivered to her house. I expect I'll review it when I'm finished with it, if I can find the time.