A balaclava for my grandson

I finished it yesterday, after redoing the ribbing around the face. The first try was way too tight, I picked up too little stitches. The instructions were a bit vague and warned about not making it to wide, but the second time I ended up picking up one stitch for every row at the sides, and all ten stitches that I had to cast off under the chin and that looks perfect.

After folding the ribbing inwards and sewing it down, I was done!

It looks (too?) small to me, but I don’t really have a clue about baby heads anymore. Normal hats are much more flexible than this, so it worries me a bit. But then again, I did the math.

Well, I sort of did. For the height I followed what the pattern adviced for two year olds. They don’t really give measurements other than stitches for the width and I used thinner yarn, so I had to do a bit of guesswork*, but I think it will be okay. Unstretched the hat covers 32 cm (12″) and I guestimated that the face is about 1/3 of the total head circumference, so that would make 48 (18″) cm, which is what they state as the right size for a two year old.

R. is only one year old, but Dutch babys tend to be a little bit bigger than American babys. Oh wait, this is a British pattern… Gosh, so confusing.

But Dutch people are among the tallest people of the world, so I think our 1 year old Dutch boy should fit perfectly in this size. And if it’s too big, they can always save it for next year.

I will be demanding a try-on the moment I gifted this though. I usually don’t, but the suspense is killing me! (only one month before we go)

p.s. I will also try to take pictures of him wearing it and post some on the blog.

*Yes, I know: gauge! But somehow guessing works better for me. I’ve never gotten things right with gauging.