Bedeck
Patrons at any level (yes, even the levels that cost less than the pattern!) get this pattern for free as part of their membership.
The patreon version includes a super secret bonus (only available through patreon) that lets you make it in people sizes. The version you can buy only includes the ornament sized version. The people version comes in seven sizes and six gauges (to fit anything from babies up through adults and to work in anything from fingering through bulky yarn).
The pictures without tassels show the people version (only available through patreon). The pictures with the tassels show the ornament version (that's the version available for sale on payhip and ravelry).
Some things you do just because they’re fun. Some things you do just because you need a quick win. Some things you do just because they’re pretty. Some things you do just because you need a way to connect with someone. And those things can be every bit as valid as the things you do to be practical or functional.
And tiny hats? Well, they’re pretty great at all of that!
They only take an hour or two to knit (they’re perfect for using yarn scraps leftover from bigger projects). They’re a great way to practice new stitches or try out color combinations you want to play with. They make adorable ornaments. I’ve even been known to stick one on top of a present as a bow or tuck one in a card.
And really, that seems like plenty to ask from something so tiny!
Bookmarked
Ok so you were undoubtedly a much cooler kid than I was. But I, utter weirdo that I was, was absolutely convinced that adulthood would involve a significant number of important things tucked away in secret hiding places. What can I say, I was a credulous child, and I read a lot of really bad spy novels. But for a while there, the idea of a book with a secret compartment was just about the coolest thing I could imagine.
My actual adulthood has, alas, turned out to be rather lacking in the sorts of intrigue and adventure my eight year old self was anticipating. But somehow a tiny little knitted book, complete with handy storage compartment, still holds a certain appeal (or, possibly, it’s that I’m just utterly unable to resist the charms of a good tin or a little slide out box).
Now it's true, I'll be using mine to hold stitch markers and darning needles and scissors and a tape measure, rather than cash and jewels and forged documents and some sort of clever device that will let me foil a dastardly plot at the last possible second. But really, I suspect that's probably for the best.
Chimney
Once upon a time, a friend with kids came over for a visit and saw the tray of blocks that lived on my coffee table. She started talking about how nice it was when folks without kids had toys around for kids to play with when they stopped by.
I did not have the heart to explain that those were my blocks.
They were mine. They were for me. And I will totally share them with you if you visit! But they are very much mine. And I’m going to play with them, regardless of my age or how ridiculous it might seem.
That’s pretty much how I feel about these little houses. I want to play with them. I want to make a whole village. I want houses and a tea shop and a bookstore and a school and everything else I can dream up. I want to use just the right colors and arrange them just so and dream up little stories for the folks who live there. Regardless of my age. Even if it’s ridiculous.
But I will share them with you if you’d like.
Dispatch
There’s something magical about letters. I don’t know why. I’m not in charge of these things. There just is. The idea taking a tiny handful of the thoughts swirling around in your head, turning them on to words, putting those words on paper, and sending them off on an adventure to land on someone else’s doorstep and brighten their day is just kind of special.
My hope is to capture a tiny sliver of that magic with this knitted envelope!
Discretion dictates you not actually try and send it through the mail (though goodness knows I understand the temptation). But you can absolutely tuck a note (or a gift card, or some candy, or some other tiny treasure) inside and slip it under your sweetheart’s pillow or into a friend’s coat pocket or into your kid’s lunch box. Or perhaps you want to help the tooth fairy on her appointed rounds or make a post office play set (how cute would it be to make a little snap on stamp?) or knit a whole bunch and have the coolest advent calendar ever. I suspect that, as with most magical things, something delightful will occur to you if you just think about it for a little while!
Ensorcellment
These are absurd. They serve no practical purpose. You cannot wear them (they are tiny and if you tried to scale them up to human size, they would be way too floppy). You cannot do anything even remotely useful with them. I will not pretend that you’re going to do anything at all with them other than knit them, set them somewhere cute, and grin helplessly when you see how unspeakably adorable they are. Or possibly, knit them, inflict them on unsuspecting friends and family, and grin helplessly when you see them realize how unspeakably adorable they are.
And if that’s enough for you, well then that’s grand. We could all use more things that fill us with helpless glee right about now! But if you’re wanting me to talk you into believing that they’re useful and practical and that they’ll solve some problem in your life, I can’t quite bring myself to do it.
But my goodness are they ever cute!
Explicate
I have a somewhat fraught relationship with what some folks call mindless knitting. I often reach for my knitting when I need a distraction from the world. If a project is too mindless, it won’t provide the necessary level of diversion. Worse yet, if it’s too mindless, I’ll get bored and never actually finish. And then the project will go to the pile of abandoned dreams in the corner and make me feel no end of guilt.
But not this time! This time I absolutely raced through what is, by any reasonable measure, fairly simple knitting. Because this time, when I was done, I knew that I was going to do something absolutely enchanting. I was going to embroider all over my knitting!
Should this have been enough motivation to push me through yet one more round of plain stockinette? Probably not. Was it? Oh very much so. Will it work for you? Every knitter is different, so I can’t make any promises, but I suspect it very well might!
Foraged
I have it on good authority that taking a walk in the woods with me is, um, let’s say “challenging.” For you see, I am naturally inclined to wander. To meander. To stray from the path at the slightest provocation to investigate the mossy tree stump or lichen-covered stone wall or nifty rock or shiny feather or glossy acorn or, on more than one occasion, the faintly menacing yet still strangely appealing mushrooms that magically appeared since last I passed this way.
Now, I (usually) manage to (more or less) restrain myself and don’t (often) pick them. But oh, oh it takes more self control than I prefer to exercise. Which is why it should surprise absolutely no one that I eventually gave in and knit myself a whole pile of these little delights.
Alas, much as with their real-life counterparts, I must recommend that you not eat them. But, other than that, you can be as unrestrained as you’d like. I fully support knitting a whole collection of them and tucking them somewhere unexpected. You never know when someone distractible will be walking by to delight in them!
Hoard
These win the prize for the quickest and very possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever knit (though to be fair, there is a good bit of competition for that last category). It’s also the thing I’ve knit the most times. By, oh, let’s just say by a rather substantial margin. I think I knit a dozen in an afternoon when the urge first came upon me.
For you see, there is a massive oak tree in my yard. And I’ve rather bonded with this tree. I see it out my office window all day long, and I love it dearly. Every year it drops absolute masses of double acorns. One fall, as I was spending some time with the tree, I noticed one tiny, gleaming acorn hanging out in a little pocket of moss nestled in the space between two tree roots.
It was unspeakably perfect, the sort of thing you see on a postcard and think it’s just a bit too charming to ever be real. So naturally I started wondering what it would look like with a knitted acorn. And then, well, you know what happens when I get an idea like that.
The pattern originally had you use real acorn caps for the tops of each acorn, and I’m still awfully fond of this approach. But I was eventually overcome by the urge to do a knitted version of the acorn cap (yes, yes absolutely including a double version, how could I resist), so now the pattern includes both options.
There’s absolutely nothing practical to do with them at all. They serve no useful function whatsoever. But I suspect you’ll find them every bit as irresistible as I do. Though I’ll warn you, it’s shockingly difficult to knit just one.
Palpitation
This was the very first bit of tiny nonsense I ever knit.
I was having a bad time. I’d broken my leg. I couldn’t get comfortable to knit for more than twenty minutes at a time. Everything felt absolutely impossible. So I knit these. I knit piles and piles and piles of these sweet, silly little distractions.
I almost didn’t write a pattern because I truly wasn’t sure anyone needed any such thing. But when I shared a few pictures, folks were absolutely besotted. So I wrote them up, and they’ve been one of my most popular patterns ever since. I am truly delighted that you love them as much as I do!
They’ve shown up as decorations or favors at weddings and baby showers and birthday parties. They’ve been tucked in lunch boxes and book bags and coat pockets on both hard days and happy ones. They’ve found their way into envelopes and through the mail to folks who needed a little surprise. They’ve shown up on Christmas trees and garlands and mobiles. They’re basically the perfect way to turn a few dozen yards of yarn and a few hours of knitting into a tiny token of good will that you can hand out as needed.
Mailing List
Want to hear when a new pattern comes out or something fun is going on? Sign up below!
Patreon
Want to support the content I create, get nifty bonus material for some of my favorite patterns, or get every new release delivered right to your inbox? Head over to patreon and sign up!
