Friday Finish: Child Balaclava

Gosh, this was a fun and easy project, once I got the hang of the 3-color slip stitch pattern. The yarns were great (Cascade Elysian) and blocked out beautifully. If only I had a five-year-old to test the fit and pose for the photo shoot.

A quick solution for a head mannequin: Grab an oatmeal box and draw a face on it. At least this solves for the photo shoot. Checking the fit will require plopping the piece on a real live child.

View from the side. I stuffed in a small ball of yarn to fill out the crown.

Looking at the back, you observe my slight alteration to the pattern: I noticed in the pattern’s photographs that the neck increases resulted in a slight flare.

To accentuate this feature, I switched from 1 by 1 ribbing to seed stitch just in this section. This will allow the back of the neck to fit easily over a collar.

Or, the flare could be tucked inside coat, to keep winter winds away from tender skin.

If you like the pattern, here is a link to Gretchen Tracey’s website.

https://www.ballstothewallsknits.com/2014/02/kids-dice-check-balaclava.html

She offers the balaclava in a baby size as well as dozens of other cute head coverings for kids. This pattern was free. I hope you’ll give her designs a try.