Scarf and Mittens

I am way behind on posting the things I made last fall!  When we moved to what Robert affectionately calls "the frozen North" last summer, I promised to make Robert a scarf and mittens.  He previously owned a pair of leather gloves and a fleece hat, but not a scarf or mittens, and we knew he would need them for the winter.

The scarf is a ribble pattern.  I had Robert page through my stitch dictionary to see what he liked, and then I suggested the reversible cables as something that would be thick and warm, and not too much of a pain to knit.  I cast on 86 stitches, knit a few rows of garter stitch, then switched to ribbles with a 3-stitch garter border on each side, knit until it was as long as he is tall, and finished with a few more rows of garter.  I was somewhat reluctant to knit a scarf because I remember them taking forever and being pretty boring, but I was pleasantly surprised that this came together quickly - and he loves that I made it for him.

The mittens have a ribble cuff to match the scarf.  I spent a lot of time browsing Ravelry for free mitten patterns.  Although I have a really fun mitten book (Knit Mittens!), all of the patterns in it are pretty fancy, and I wanted something plain.  I eventually settled on this vintage pattern.  I also came across this stranded pattern on the same site - I'd love to make those in the future!

I originally wanted to make a matching hat to go with the scarf and mittens, but I didn't have enough yarn.  I only bought 3 skeins of yarn, and only have about 75 yards left.  Maybe next year I'll get another skein, hope the dye lots are close enough, and make the matching hat.


Pattern: My own brain for the scarf, vintage pattern for the mittens
Size: N/A
Yarn: Valley Yarns Northampton in Denim Heather (100% wool); 2.7 skeins = 270 grams = ~675 yds total
Needles:  US size 9 for the scarf, US size 5 for the mittens
Started/Completed: I don't remember - Fall 2016
Modifications: Ribble cuff instead of plain cuff for the mittens