I wanted to create a light fabric as Taylor lives in Destin, Florida and probably won't be needing anything heavy. I also wanted something durable and washable as lets face it, she's four. I used a pink cotton/acrylic blend pom-popm yarn. Each skein was 50 grams and although I used three, I had tons left over.
I cast on with size 4 needles 35 stitches and made the scarf with a simple rib stitch in multiples of 5. Literally 5K 5P for about 2 feet. For the hat I used circular size 4 needles and cast on 70 and continued to use the 5K 5P rib stitch. I kind of winged it when decreasing for the top and simply used a calculator to decrease every 10, every 7, every 5, etc until I had closed up the top with a darting needle.
I knew I wanted to add a pom-pom on the hat but had no idea how to do that. I just googled "knitting pom-pom patterns" and found one that was easy looking. Basically I used the side of a cardboard box and cut out 2 circles about 2" across and with a donut hole in the middle. After wrapping the yarn around again and again and again (use a darting needle, it made this easier!) I cut in between the two cardboard holes and tied the middle very tightly and "fluffed" the pom-pom out. Here is an example of a site I used: http://www.craftown.com/knitpat6.htm
It turned out pretty cute and got some great compliments on a very simple project. Unfortunately, the recipient of this never even acknowledged that I sent something to her (or her mom actually) which bums me only because I never got to see a picture of Taylor in it! Oh well... it was fun to make regardless. The boy is out of the picture too so we'll just say the next "Princess Scarf" will have to be made with an actual Prince in my life ;-)
