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Dear Ann,

I’m doing the thing that we said to do: I’m knitting a pattern until it’s burned into my memory like a hand-clapping song from grade school. Downtown, baby, downtown, a rollercoaster!

The pattern: the Stranded Diamonds Hat by Thea Colman, from MDK Field Guide No. 8: Merry Making.

I started out thinking, I’ll just knit the 12-month size. That’ll take no time at all, and I can get back to my regularly scheduled knitting, aka a sweater for me.

The 12-month size hat did take no time at all. It also left me with a lot of leftover yarn and a question: could I get a second hat out of my allotted two skeins of Shalimar Enzo Aran?

Midway through hat no. 2, in the largest size, my two colors (Sand Dollar/cream and Water Chestnut/brown) made me think of sock monkeys. If I put red pom poms on my hats, they would call to mind sock monkeys, which would be amusing to me. And if I used a third yarn for the pom poms, I might be able to get a third hat out of my 2 skeins.

(I just watched a refresher video on how to make a pom pom on my Loome Tool. Thank you, Vilasinee!)

So that’s where I’m at, on hat no. 3. Despite my dwindling yarn supply, I’m making it in the largest size, because I know a little family with 2 adults and one pumpkin-headed baby, and I think they would be open to wearing sock monkey hats.

(Hey, look–I unwittingly demonstrated Fair Isle color dominance.)

I hope I make it! Already scheming a solution if I run out of yarn at the crown. I’ll just finish the top of the crown with the red. (The red yarn is random unlabeled yarn from my stash. If I were using the dreamy, stitch-defining Shalimar Yarns Enzo Aran for the pom poms, I’d go with Shrimp Kiss, for a faded, vintage sock monkey look.)

The pattern is not quite burned into my memory. I still need the chart for the 10-stitch colorwork pattern, and a little review when I get to the decreases at the crown.

Shimmy shimmy coco pop!

Love,

Kay

P.S. I’ve got a lover—a biscuit! (I swear that’s the way the song went. What this did for the developing juvenile brain, I don’t know, but I remember it as being very powerful. I also remember jumping rope to it instead of clapping hands, but maybe I was just lonesome.)

33 Comments

  • Will make wonderful gifts. I’ll purchase the book at Rhinebeck.

  • I adore the sock monkey hats! I’m on coaster the second in the cherry Windham. It is going so much better than the first one (closer to gauge) that I may get Extra Value from my yarn by reknitting the first one. Very addicting. 🙂

  • I love your sock monkey hat idea! I’ve justade my daughter a sock monkey style hat (using a pattern I found on Knitty) and she wears it 24/7. We’re currently in Japan on holiday and her hat has its own IG account documenting it’s travels….

  • My daughter and I recently demonstrated some hand-clapping for my 5-yr. old granddaughter. She seemed unimpressed, but my daughter and I enjoyed it immensely and both wondered why this was still locked in our brains. (What did I have for breakfast yesterday?) “Oh Mary MAC MAC MAC, all dressed in black, black, black…..”

    • Holy Cow! Is this subversive, subliminal messaging that permeated my childhood the reason why I have a daughter named Mary with a little sister named Mackenzie (who goes by MAC! on all of her sports teams- I get corrected if I cheer for Kenzie… “Um, no that’s Mac. Kenzie is that other girl”).?!? And why they both have a lot of black in their wardrobes?* ⚫️
      *in the interest of full disclosure, I also have a Matt, Megan, Michelle, Marc and a Murphy and our first dog (long ago) was Molly. Anyone have clapping games for those names?

    • So funny. Why do I remember the lyrics of so many songs but not where we went for dinner two nights ago? Poison Iiiivvvyy. Poison Ivvvvvy. Late at night while you’re sleeping….

      • Because music is stored differently in the brain. Add a physical action even better because that gives your brain 2 reference points.
        My Mom had trouble remembering me but could still play the piano!

        • Figure out how to put STEM concepts to music with hand movements and you’ll suddenly have a whole generation of brilliant scientists! Maybe just my dream…

  • I am going to be signing hand clapping songs in my head all day! The hats looks great!

  • I’m slip stitch capping right now, then Chalice cowling— then the stranded diamondzing will commence. I already feel as if I’ve missed points due to the missed sock monkey opp!

  • I’m thinking that sock monkey hats (matchies!) for me and the dog would be perfect for our holiday cards!

    Because who doesn’t want to dress like their dog?!

    • Only monsters!

  • Finished the Slip Stitch cap late last night (very late)! Went to start the Stranded Diamonds Hat only to find I had only ordered one color. I do like the sock monkey look. Mmmmm….. if I have to get more yarn anyway…

    • You can do a super-subtle “tonal” Stranded Diamonds hat. No? I guess not.

  • Hand clapping songs!! There were a couple I could practice on the kitchen table when no hands were available.
    “The spades go tulips together,
    Twilight forever,
    Bring back my love to me.
    What is the meeee aaaaning
    Of all these flooooowers?
    It is the meeeeeeaning
    The meaning of love from me to you.”

    There’s an earworm to take to work today!

    • They were doing very deep hand-clapping songs where you come from.

  • Shimmy, shimmy coco pop….haven’t heard or thought of that song in longer than I can say. Immediately, when I read that I remembered how my Dad would tease my sister and I with those lyrics. You sure put a smile on my face today! What a sweet memory.

  • Ah jump rope songs;) brings back memories! Texaco texaco go over the hill to Mexico and bring me back some red hot peppers ( fast jump rope)
    I just ordered Merry Making book last night. Really love the Chalice Cowlcan’t wait to cast on!!

    • I had forgotten the Texaco one. Thank you!

  • I just received #8 and it’s beautiful but I need suggestions for yarns that won’t make my forehead itch. Should I use an acrylic as a liner to be folded under? Please advise. I wish that I could knit everything out of cashmere

    • I have a friend who just hand-sews a polar fleece forehead band inside all her rustic wool hats and I think this is much easier than a knitted solution.

      • How clever, silly me made a polar fleece lining after tracing the finished hat measurements…your way is faster

      • I have also used a more time- and yarn-consuming solution, which is to make a band out of the cotton elastic yarn, Fixation (by Cascade). It not only reduces the itch factor, it can also make a slightly too big hat fit better! I love Fixation for many projects, and wish it came in more (darker!) colors.

  • Kay, I’m surprised that you haven’t yet jumped on the slip stitch hat bandwagon. The pattern is like a mini ballband warshrag with its “mortar” slips and bricks (only soft and squishy and wooly rather than crisp and cottony) and I didn’t want to stop knitting. I’m thinking my baby granddaughter might need a stroller blanket or sweater yoke with this pattern to match the hat I’m making (which is adult size so I’ll just have to knit another one in baby. Oh darn. ).
    There should be a surgeon general’s warning on the cover of your field guides: CAUTION! Contents may be addicting. Intervention may be necessary!

    • I KEEP WAITING FOR THE YARN FROM NASHVILLE. It’s like the Wells Fargo wagon! I have a feeling the Slip-Stitch Cap is going to be done, and overdone, once I get started. Love the idea for a squishy stroller blanket!

      • Speaking of earworms…”Montgomery Ward sent me a bathtub and a crosscut saw!”

  • Love your blog, loyal daily reader! Do whop do whop!!

  • My favorite hand clapping ‘song’ was called (by us at least) “Leansies Clapsies” and continued “turn about, tabapsies. highsidies. lowsidies. touch my knee, touch my toe, touch my heel .and under we go!” which we did while bouncing a ball in various ways.

  • The version I learned didn’t have your line but did end with “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.”

    I now, for the first time realize what that linereferred to given our preceding verses. As if we needed more proof that NYC in the 70s was not prissy.

  • Go girl. I love your thinking. Three hats are always better than one, especially with Christmas coming.

  • I really like this hat and the colors that it is illustrated in. Also, the color dominance is an eye opener.

  • Our version of the handclapoing song was “Down down baby, down by the roller coaster; sweet sweet baby, I’ll never let you go, shimmy shimmy coco pop shimmy shimmy pow; shimmy shimmy coco pop shimmy shimmy pow. “. I was both a camper and a camp counselor for many many years so I have a great number of these songs that I taught my kids.

  • Loved this pattern. I made 14 hats for Christmas gifts for my children and daughter- in-laws and 9 grandchildren. I made them using the women’s medium and they all fit. Thanks

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