thank you

knitting in the round is easy when you get the hang of it, i much prefer to knit round than knit flat.

That is extremely cool.

I am going to start one tonight for my littlest guy so I will definately be sizing it AND using a teeny hook, since he is three!!

Let me know how you go please? I'm going to do my next one for my little son too so it would be good to be able to compare size notes?

Those are the colors of a Jayne Hat! 

They are indeed!  I have a bunch of wool here for that purpose, but cotton needed something else, and bucket hats are his favorite style..  Once it was done, with the shine that mercerised cotton has, and science fiction on the brain, we straight away thought of rocket shaped ice lollies

a warning - he does have a largeish head!  if you make this up i really would try it for size at the top, you might not need so many increases.

Thank you everyone!

I knit so translating the idea in my head, the shapes, increases etc, is quite easy.  It took me quite a while and more than a few goes to work out how to do the stitches though!  But i'd already had a go at crocheting a circle so making a hat shape from there was quite easy, especially as I was only using one stitch throughout.  And really its the colours that make it so lovely.

Im very new to crochet, but i've written myself a hat pattern already

The shape was based on my partners favourite bucket hat (a plain dark blue cotton hat bought cheap in a supermarket) and he tried it on as I made it, offering suggestions as to how he would best like it.  It was very simple to do, only using double crochet (UK term - single crochet in US terminology) throughout.




I wrote up the pattern on my blog, after checking my stitch route..  I havent tested it yet but probably will sometime over the next week or two in different colours.  The hat is named after the rocket shaped Zoom ice lollies which come in the same bright colours.

congratulations, i love to see new babies getting the star wars bug straight away!

I'm organising a get together in Plymouth so here's the flyer. Please pass on to any knitters you know in Devon or Cornwall! It should be fun, the cafe is in the kids playground so parents who knit are welcome, and its a lovely community cafe with decently priced drinks and munchies. There's plenty of space for sitting outside if the weather is good!



I hope this isnt too close to spam, it's a free community event...

Is anyone else planning meetups for KIP day? There's a list of events planned in other towns here http://www.wwkipday.com, if there's nothing near you now would be a good time to organise something 

i did some more research on the effect our donations have on people within Africa, i really didnt know how bad it was. here's a few articles:

   
Cast-off UK clothes make Zambia poor

Clothes Line
Charity killing Zambia's textile industry

Salaula has affected textile industry
Beyond Handouts - Rethinking Africa's road to development
Southern voice: the rag trade
World Bank causes Zambia's economic collapse

i would encourage everyone here to only donate their old stuff to their local charities - dont put it in the charity banks!  its shameful that any of our charities think that their cause is more important than an entire continents economy.  most of the articles above are about Zambia but from what I can see this affects much of Africa. 

i dont know what else we can do, apart from spread the word.  this is a multi million pound industry, some western businesses are making an absolute killing on this.  it isnt right.