I love to gift hand-knit things, but I always struggle to get started…then before I know it, the countdown to Christmas is on, and I’m stress knitting my nights away like my life depends on it.

So this year I’m doing things differently—I’m on the quest for a stress free handmade holiday, which means planning my projects now to avoid crunch time chaos later. 

First up on my to-do list was some baby hats for a friend’s incoming little one.

I’m used the Simple Baby Hat pattern by Alison Williams, which is free on ravelry. I knew I wanted to do stripes, so I scrolled through the “projects” tab for inspiration. This helped me decide that I wanted to use three or four colors in total. In the past, picking my color palette could take me HOURS, so I went in with high hopes Palette Scout would streamline that process.

Step One: Find your anchor color.

I picked one anchor color to start with. I know my friends like bright colors, and I spotted some orange accents in their nursery, so I went with Ember. 

Step Two: Consult the Palette Ideas card. 

Next I pulled the Palette Ideas card for that hue. I decided to go with the split complement palette, because it felt playful and unexpected.  

I pulled out all my color options and played around until I had something I loved. 

Step Three: Match to your yarn.

I popped the palette in my notebook using my Sticker Pack and headed to my local yarn store, Spun Ann Arbor. I found pretty much perfect matches to all of my colors! 

I also could have matched the cards to my stash, but hey, any excuse to go yarn shopping right?

Step Four: Knit, knit knit!

Then I got to knitting! I free styled my stripe patterns, and as I went along I actually ended up pulling in a darker teal from my stash as well. It added some nice value contrast and matched the Ocean blue hue perfectly. 

Here are the finished products—I love them! I made these in a variety of sizes, so hopefully they can grow with the baby. 

It felt so good to check these off my gift knit list. If you’re also looking to enjoy a stress-free handmade holiday, plan your projects with Palette Scout! Our Knitting Bundles include Color Match Guides for Knit Picks Palette, Berroco Vintage, Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift, and Harrisville Designs Highland and Shetland - so you can easily shop for any colors you might need to bring your palette to life.