Knitting this Fall

With a baby, a toddler, a full-time job, and a pandemic going on, I didn't get much knitting done this summer and fall.  But I did get a little bit done.  The baby needed a hat, and I wanted to knit it for him, so my mom was gracious enough to watch the kids while I sat in her family room and knitted almost half a hat one day in October (even though we don't live in our house, she's the 5th member of our household for pandemic purposes).  I used about half a skein of the same Malabrigo Rios I used for his newborn frog sweater, which no longer fits.  The pattern is Tin Can Knits' Beloved hat/bonnet. I made the toddler size for my then 7-month-old, and it fits him perfectly.  

The other knitting project I finished was a pair of socks for a friend.  Her younger son has Down syndrome, and World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on 3/21 by wearing crazy socks.  When I saw this pattern from one of my favorite knitting bloggers, I knew I had to make these for my friend!  The yarn is KnitPicks Felici and Stroll sock.  Blue and yellow are the Down syndrome awareness colors.  I started these socks in early March and had the wild idea that I'd finish them in time for World Down Syndrome Day 2020, but I didn't manage it.  Instead, I managed to finish them in October and did a front porch drop-off at my friend's house.  She was delighted with them, and pointed out that I finished them in plenty of time for World Down Syndrome Day 2021!

Here's a photo of the index card I used to keep track of the pattern.  It was fun and fairly easy to knit!

 

Striped Skew Socks

These are Skew socks, with Knitpicks Felici yarn.  I really like how they turned out in self-striping yarn!  I used 2mm and 2.25mm needles.  I started them in May 2019 and finished them at the end of February 2020.  I did most of the knitting in the car riding to and from church (I'm a Unitarian Universalist and my church is in a city about half an hour away from the town where I live).

This is my second pair of skew socks (although maybe I should say third, because I knit the first pair twice!).  My first pair are one of my favorite pairs of socks.  They fit me really well, although they are a bit snug to get them on and off - but that also means that they stay put really well once they're on.  They're also interesting and fun to knit.  I rarely knit the same sock pattern twice, but I like this pattern so much that I'll probably knit it at least one more time!

Newborn Frog Sweater

This is actually a recent project - I only finished it about a month ago!  I started it after we got home from the hospital with our new baby, born at the end of March.  It was an easy and quick knit, and turned out great!  The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, and it was wonderful to work with and looks fantastic in the finished sweater.  I think it will hold up well, too - it's a pretty firmly spun yarn.  

The pattern is TinCanKnits Harvest in the smallest size.  I lengthened the body a bit, but not the sleeves (and I wish I had lengthened the body a bit more, because my babies are long and skinny).  The sleeves are the perfect length.  This pattern is awesome - it's free, and like all TinCanKnits patterns it includes an unbelievably wide size range, from newborn to very large adult.  I included the optional buttonholes, and closed it with buttons from my button jar, salvaged from some worn out item of clothing that I can't remember.

2019 State Fair Entries

I entered four things in the state fair last year, and won two ribbons! 

The item I was most proud of is the little striped sweater I made for my toddler.  I used one skein of Cascade 220 Superwash (the charcoal grey) and about one and a half skeins of Liberty Print worsted, which is apparently now discontinued.  The sweater was inspired by one made by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot) several years ago - this is the second sweater I've knit based on that one.  The first was a cardigan I made for my niece when she was a toddler.  I pretty much winged the pattern using the raglan recipe in The Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.  I put a little bit of care into starting the sleeves at a point in the skein that would give the stripe sequence some continuity across and down the sweater.  I'm pretty thrilled with how it came out, although the sleeves are a bit long and the bind-offs are kind of tight (I very nearly ran out of the grey yarn).  It didn't win a ribbon - the comment from the judge was that the bind-offs are too tight (true) and that the seams were messy (which I can't figure out, because the sweater is seamless).

The other item I finished last year was a blouse in lovely Lovely Liberty of London lawn, which I've never managed to photograph.  I started it at the end of summer 2017, right before I got pregnant with my older son.  I finished it at the beginning of summer 2019, just in time to enter it in the state fair.  I still haven't worn it very many times, because I got pregnant with my second son in summer 2019, and it will probably be a while before I can wear it, because it's not compatible with nursing or pumping.  I'm really proud of it, and will try to get a blog post about how I made it up at some point (with some photos of it on the hanger).  It didn't win anything, either.

The two items I won ribbons for were much older - the rules of our state fair don't say you have to have made the item in the last year, only that it can't have been entered in the state fair before.  My blue Washi dress won a 2nd place ribbon in the women's dress category, and my Deep in the Forest shawl won an honorable mention in the lace shawl category!

Newborn Sweater

I made this tiny sweater for a friend's baby daughter, who was born in October.  I had every intention of knitting it quickly, but in the end finished it just before Christmas and finally managed to mail it out today. 

It's the smallest size of Baby Tea Leaves, knit in Ella Rae Lace Merino DK.

Process-Oriented Knitting

Since my baby was born a year ago, I've really been savoring my crafting time.  So I'm not upset to have frogged and re-started two knitting projects in the past week.  It also helps that I don't have a time deadline on these projects, so I can just enjoy the knitting process without rushing.  The first project is this striped raglan sweater.  It's a pullover version of this cardigan that I made for my niece a few years ago, and my intention is for it to fit my son this coming winter.  I've been really enjoying the knitting, and was very pleased with myself for learning a new technique for jogless stripes!  Unfortunately, it was coming out way too big (which didn't actually bother me, it will fit at some point), and I ran out of the grey yarn before I finished the first sleeve.  So I frogged it, and I've started knitting it again in a smaller size.  So far, I'm enjoying it just as much the second time.

The second project is a pair of Skew Socks in KnitPicks Felici self-striping yarn.  I started the toe, got several rounds in, and then noticed that I'd done the Turkish cast-on wrong.  I have now ripped it out and restarted.  I don't mind re-knitting this small bit of toe so that I'll have a nicer pair of socks when I'm done.

New Baby Socks

I cast on the first of these socks almost a year ago, as I was sitting in my hospital bed waiting for things to get going on my induction.  In the few hours before the contractions got too painful and close together to keep knitting, I finished most of the leg of the first sock.  

Then almost all of my knitting time vanished.  This winter, I discovered that I can knit in the car on the way to church or other activities in the nearest city (while my husband drives us there) - and I started making progress on my socks again.  Then, the baby started sleeping more hours at night than I need to, and so we started to be able to watch a little bit of TV in the evenings after baby bedtime, and I started making more knitting progress.  I finally finished these socks a few weeks ago, almost a year after I started them.  

Here's my "pattern."  The yarn is Regia Design Line by Arne & Carlos 4-ply in color 3657 Summer Night, which was a birthday gift from my mom last year.  I have about 27 g left (of the 100 g skein) so I should be able to do something with the remaining yarn.

Sheepie Sweater

I knit this sweater for my baby last Spring - I had it all finished except the button plackets before he was born, and I finished the plackets and sewed the buttons on sometime in June.  (It was pretty much the only knitting I did between when the baby was born and the end of the Fall semester.)

I used Melissa Kemmerer's Sheepish Little Sweater Light pattern and Cascade Heritage sock yarn that my mom had leftover after knitting me a pair of sheepie socks for my birthday.  The only major change I made to the pattern was to add a button placket along one of the raglan lines - I got the idea from some sweaters that the Yarn Harlot had knitted for her nephew many years ago, and I'm really glad I did because otherwise the neckhole would have been way too small to get over the baby's head. I think I did make some modifications to the pattern having to do with gauge and size, but I can't remember what they were at this point.  I think I tried to aim for finished measurements in the 12 month size, and that worked out pretty well.  The sweater has fitted him this fall and winter, although the sleeves are still too long.

I'm really proud of this sweater, and I had planned to enter it in the state fair at the end of the summer, but in my sleep-deprived haze I missed the drop-off day for fair entries.  I was really disappointed, but I'll have to knit something else equally awesome to enter next year instead.

Two Newborn Sweaters

When I made last year's Christmas sweaters for my niece and nephew, I bought three balls of worsted weight yarn for each of them, and each sweater used two full balls plus just a bit of the third.  When I finished, I had a good brainstorm about what would be a good use for about 200 yards of superwash worsted weight yarn in each of pink and yellow, and I hit on newborn sweaters!  I picked out a free pattern on Ravelry that would be good for any gender - Olive You Too.

I made two almost exactly the same, and finished them in February.  The pink one is for a friend's daughter and I made it exactly as written in the pattern. 

The yellow one is for my baby (who is expected to be a boy), and the only thing I changed was the buttonhole placement and number of buttons - I thought the buttons grouped at the top were a little bit on the girly side.  If you're paying attention to the photos, you'll notice that I also crossed the cables the other way on the yellow one - that started out as an accident, and when I noticed half-way through the sweater I decided to make it a design feature rather than ripping out to start over.

This project was very successful!  It used almost all of the leftover yarn (and the buttons were from my button jar), and my friend's daughter looks adorable in her sweater.  I'm excited for my baby to wear his!

Pattern:  Olive You Too by Taiga Hilliard Designs
Size: 0-3 months
Yarn: Yalley Yarns Superwash Worsted, about 200 yards per sweater
Needles: 4mm
Started/Completed: January 2018/February 2018
Modifications: None for the pink sweater.  For the yellow sweater, I crossed all of the cables the other way and made five buttonholes evenly spaced along the button band instead of four buttons all near the top.

Maternity Sweater

My big winter knitting project is done!  After multiple years of infertility, we are expecting a baby at the end of May, and one of the first things I did after my first ultrasound in October was to buy yarn to knit myself a maternity sweater.  It took me a while to get started, because I was worried about how my pregnancy might turn out, and then I got distracted by Christmas projects, but I finally finished the sweater a few weeks ago.  In these pictures, I'm 34 weeks pregnant.

The sweater has button plackets on the sides and sleeve cuffs.  I added a fifth button to each side, because odd numbers are more visually pleasing, and I was worried that the button plackets wouldn't come up high enough on my belly for them to really be functional - they're designed to be worn open at the end of pregnancy, to create more room for the belly.

At least so far, I prefer the sweater buttoned all the way down.  And, I really like the buttons I found.  It wasn't easy to find 16 matching buttons!  I think the brass-colored roses give it a nice, slightly dressier touch, and they're really cute.

The sweater is knit in 2x2 rib, and it's super stretchy.  It's really warm and comfortable!

Luckily (I guess?) we've been having a late, cold spring this year, so even though it took me so long to finish my heavy wool sweater, I can still wear it a bunch before the baby is born.

Pattern:  Mommy Snug by Kate Gilbert
Size: 20.5" bust circumference, to fit 39.5" bust
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, color 8011 (an oatmeal grey), 6.5 skeins
Needles: 4mm
Started/Completed: October 2017/April 2018
Modifications: I added a 5th button to each of the side plackets, which made the plackets taller (but I kept the number of rows in the sweater below the short-row belly shaping the same as called for in the pattern).  I worked a second set of belly short rows - in hindsight, this really wasn't necessary and the short rows are a little high on my anyway, but the sweater fits fine and is comfortable.  I knitted the sleeves in the round (from the end of the button plackets) and lengthened them significantly.  Instead of working a hemmed neck edging, I followed a project I saw on Ravelry and worked an i-cord neck edging.  

Handmade Christmas 2017

Wow, this post is late!  I didn't plan to make very many Christmas gifts, but somehow I ended up making a bunch anyway.  This quilt was for my Grandma, and it was a team effort with my mom.  We had given Grandma the fabric and pattern for Christmas two or three years ago, but we came to the conclusion that she was never going to sew it, so we decided to do it for her.  It was relatively quick (two weekends), and fun to do together!  It came out great, and Grandma loves it.

I've done Christmas sweaters for my niece and nephew every year so far (although last year I made a flannel shirt for my nephew instead of a sweater), and I kind of thought last year was going to be the last year - they're getting big, and the sweaters are getting to be more of a production.  But then I hit on the idea of a ballet wrap sweater for my dance-obsessed niece, and I couldn't not do one more year.

I used free patterns and used worsted weight superwash wool from Valley Yarns (the Webs house brand).  They were fun to knit, and apparently were a hit with the kids.

Earlier in the Fall, I knit a pair of socks for Robert for Christmas.  He loves them, but has dubbed them "the betrayal socks," because I knit them right in front of him without telling him they were for him.  He assumed they were for me, and was surprised that I was knitting myself socks in a blue tweedy yarn.  He tells me that he resisted the urge to ask if he could have them - he did it so well that I hesitated a bit to wrap them up for Christmas, because I wasn't sure if he liked them!

And lastly, I made a few Christmas-y kitchen things for us.  I took two fat quarters of Christmas-y fabric I bought for this purpose in Fall 2016 and finally made a set of four holiday napkins for our dining table.  I also knitted three Christmas dishcloths.  One of them made its way into my mom's stocking, and we kept the other two for ourselves.

Handspun Neck-warmer

This Fall, I decided I needed a scarf/neckwarmer to go with my purple down jacket.  I wanted something relatively small, and I decided to use some of my handspun.  I decided to use this yarn, which I spun from a batt I made at Yarn School back in October 2012 and apparently never blogged about.    

I turned it into this, which is loosely based on the Red Rasta Cowl, which I found browsing Ravelry for neckwear designed for minimal quantities of super-bulky yarn.  I wanted it to be snug and not mess up my hair, so I knitted it flat.  I used all but about six inches of the yarn.  It closes with three non-matching silver-colored buttons out of my button jar.  The yarn is thick enough that I didn't need buttonholes - I just push the buttons through the knitted fabric wherever seems right.

Here it is under the jacket.  It's very cosy and does a good job keeping the wind out of my neck!

Fixing my socks

In the six years I lived in Texas, I knit a lot of socks and almost never wore them.  When we moved to the Midwest a year and a half ago, I had about 20 pairs of handknit socks, and each of them had only been worn a few times.  Since then, they've all been worn a lot - and I have new opinions about them.  I'm finding that I like my socks to fit with some negative ease, and to be knit at a tight gauge.  I like them to have some structure, so they don't twist around or slide down in my shoes (this problem is worse with boots, which I now own two pairs of (previously, I owned zero)).  In general, I prefer a traditional, top-down heel-flap heel to almost all of the toe-up/short-row heels I've tried. 

With this new knowledge, this Fall I fixed some of the socks in my drawer, to make them more wearable:

This pair, my Deflect socks, were just too long in the foot.  I had knit them long because the cable pattern has a very long repeat, and I convinced myself that it would be okay, but once I started wearing them often they were not okay.  I had at least an inch of extra length beyond my big toe.  So I ripped out the toe half of the feet and re-knit them significantly shorter.  Now I enjoy wearing them!

The green pair (which I apparently made before I started the blog) fit well, and I enjoyed wearing them, but I made them in a very soft yarn.  I wish I had knit them at a tighter gauge - I think they would have worn better.  As it was, wearing them often for a year, I wore a hole under the ball of the foot of one sock.  Luckily, I still had the extra yarn, so I was able to repair the hole with a knit-in-place patch, following this tutorial.   I was somewhat surprised to see how much these socks have faded from wear - the color difference is pretty clear in the photo!  I was mildly concerned that I would be able to feel the patch when I wore the repaired sock, but it hasn't bothered me at all.  I'm glad that I can wear one of my favorite pairs of socks again.

The last pair are my Skew socks, which I knitted while I was on the job market in Winter and Spring 2016.  They were too big, especially in terms of length in the foot.  Unfortunately, because of the unusual toe-up way these socks are constructed, I couldn't just re-knit the toes, like I did on the red pair.  Instead, I frogged the whole pair and re-knit them with the same yarn, but on smaller needles.  It was a little bit time-consuming, but totally worth it.  I love the way these socks fit!  They have a right and left foot, so they fit snugly in the toes across both feet, and the way the heels are constructed, they don't shift around in my boots at all.  They are a little firm to get on and off, but once on they're really comfortable.  This is the only construction I've used so far that I actually prefer to top-down heel-flaps.  I will definitely be making more of these - maybe I'll try to embellish them with some cables of lace, since the pattern is pretty plain.

Deep in the Forest Shawl

I started this shawl in May 2016, right around the time I graduated, and I finished it sometime during the 2016-2017 academic year - I was pretty behind on blocking it (sometime this fall), and I'm even further behind on blogging it. 

The pattern is the Lost in the Forest shawl.  I enjoyed knitting it, especially once I got to the leaf lace pattern (the inner border).  The first long lace section wasn't very interesting.  I used some of the navy blue laceweight that I used for another shawl in 2015, and I still have enough left for another small shawl.  This shawl is joining the first navy one in the future gift pile.

Pattern:  Lost in the Forest shawl by Cath Ward
Size: one size
Yarn: Lanna Gatto Harmony 2/30 in Captain Navy, 40g of a 100g skein (29g remaining)
Needles: US3 (3.25mm)
Started/Completed: May 2016/sometime in 2017
Modifications: none

Knitted Dishcloths

I made two more knitted dish cloths for our kitchen last summer.  The one on the left is a grandmother's favorite, and the one on the right is something I made up - it's a couple rows of garter stitch alternating with a row of p1, *yo, p2tog* across.  That one is our favorite of all our handknitted dishcloths so far, because it has the scrubby garter ridges AND lots of holes, so it dries quickly.

I'm planning to knit lots more of these - I recently ordered 17 balls of dishcloth cotton yarn from KnitPicks!  The plan is to make a bunch to keep and a bunch to give as stocking stuffers at Christmas.

Old man sweater

This is the last of my Christmas gift knitting ... finished in April!  Robert had been wanting an "old man sweater" since Christmas 2015, when I made an olive green cable cardigan for our nephew, who was then six months old.  I wanted to knit one for him, but I wasn't quite sure what he wanted, and I definitely didn't want to knit him something he wouldn't like.  When the Interweave Knits Winter 2017 issue showed up, with a feature on sweaters for men, I was excited, and with Robert's cooperation, I mashed up two of the patterns in it to make this sweater for him.

He decided he wanted a pullover, not a cardigan, and we agreed that a shawl collar was required.  This would point to the Donegal Sweater, but he thought the collar poofed out too much at the back of the neck, and he wasn't wild about the stitch pattern - he really wanted cables.  He did like the cable panel on the back of the Belfast Cardigan, although he didn't like the overall fit or styling on the model.  So I replaced the decorative panel on the Donegal Sweater with a slightly adapted version of the cables from the Belfast Cardigan (the stitch counts were only off by one, so that was pretty easy).  I measured a ready-to-wear sweater that he wore a lot last fall and winter to choose the size, and then I started knitting.

Unfortunately, I started with the wrong size needles, so I had to re-knit half of the first sleeve when I didn't get gauge, and I was also knitting or sewing several other things for Christmas, so I ended up wrapping one and a half sleeves to put under the tree on Christmas morning.  I finally finished the sweater in April, and Robert loves it!  He got to wear it several times before the weather warmed up too much for wool sweaters, and every time he wore it he eagerly reminded me that I had made his sweater!  The fit is pretty good - the sleeves are a bit long and wide, but that certainly hasn't stopped him from enjoying wearing it.

Pattern: Donegal Sweater, with modifications
Size: 47"
Yarn: Valley Yarns Northampton, Color #50 Medium Grey, 100% wool, seven skeins
Needles:  US6 for ribbing, US9 for body
Started/Completed: December 2016/April 2017
Modifications: Replaced the decorative stitch pattern on front and back with cable panel from the Belfast Cardigan.  Reduced height of the the back neck shawl collar

Me-Made-May: Week 1

What I wore:

• Monday, May 1: My favorite thrifted jeans (RTW), a casual button-down shirt (RTW), Lofoten sweater, light brown handknit socks, and Geneva underwear
• Tuesday, May 2: Purple Smartwool tights (RTW), my navy gathered skirt, half-slip, plum-colored long-sleeved t-shirt (RTW), blue sweater (RTW), Geneva underwear, and my green lace shawl
• Wednesday, May 3: Favorite thrifted jeans (RTW), mushroom socks, long-sleeved t-shirt (RTW), Lofoten sweater
• Thursday, May 4: Blue tiered skirt, long-sleeved t-shirt (RTW), mended striped cashmere sweater (RTW with a visible mend by me)
• Friday, May 5: Lady skater dress, the same blue sweater I wore on Tuesday
• Saturday, May 6: In the morning I was gardening so I didn't wear any me-mades.  In the afternoon I changed into my brown floral skirt, a pink short-sleeved t-shirt (RTW), and aqua cable henley sweater (RTW)
• Sunday, May 7: Blue Washi dress, yellow cardigan (RTW)

What I made:

Well, I immediately strayed from my intention to only make for myself in May.  I ran out of time to finish a little dress for my cousin's baby that needed to be finished before the last week of May, so I finished that up.  And I realized that two little boys in my family are turning two at the end of May/beginning of June, so I ordered fabric to make a little polo shirt for each of them.  Then I started sewing on a top for me.  I had hoped to finish it during the first week of May, but didn't quite make it.  I still need to adjust and finish the side seams and do the hemming and finishing.

On the knitting front, I frogged the skew socks on the left in this photo.  These two pairs of socks were enough too big that I decided they're unwearable, so part of my plan for May is to re-knit the skew socks using smaller needles and to take out the toes and shorten the feet of the pink socks on the right.  Here's what the "new" skew sock looks like right now:

I also did a little bit of spinning - for the first time in many months I'm not knitting things for other people that I feel like I need to prioritize!

What I thought:
I realized that I don't have any me-made shirts.  Everything I've made for myself is either a skirt, a dress, socks, a shawl, a sweater, or a winter accessory.  Thinking of my wardrobe as a whole, that's not really a problem for casual wear, since I have a pretty wide variety of casual tops, especially tanks and short-sleeved t-shirts.  Where I have a big hole is long-sleeved tops, particularly work-appropriate ones.  I own enough work tops so that I don't have to iron too unreasonably often, but I don't have very many that I love or even like.  Several of them just don't fit and are in colors that I don't feel comfortable wearing.  So that will definitely inform my sewing plans going forward.

I've been reading a lot of blog posts lately about capsule wardrobes, and feeling like maybe I should do that for work.  But choosing just a few colors to base the whole thing off of feels stressful and restrictive.  I'm coming to the realization that while I like the idea of having a relatively small number of items, I can make that work without restricting myself to just 1-2 neutrals and 2-3 accent colors.  I'll make (or buy second-hand) things that I like and that I'll wear a lot, and not worry about capsule rules!

Christmas Mitten

This is the second-to-last Christmas knitting 2016 post - I'm way behind!   I knitted my mom these lovely fancy mittens - the Snowfling Mitts.  I used red and white Cascade 220 and lined them with a lovely purple hand-dyed sport-weight alpaca.  They were fun to knit and terrifically warm.  Perfect for cold Midwestern winters.

Unfortunately, the left mitten was tragically lost soon after they were put into use.  Luckily, I have leftover yarn, so I can knit a new mate this Summer.  Then I might have to knit another pair for myself!

Pattern: Snowfling Mitts
Size: One size
Yarn: Cascade 220, one skein each colors 8505 and 9404, and Foothills Yarn and Fiber 100% baby alpaca in Iris
Needles:  3mm sock dpns (a little bit on the short side for adult mittens, but totally workable)
Started/Completed: December 2016/January 2017
Modifications: Used worsted rather than DK weight yarn for the outers and sport rather than fingering for the lining

Wowligan

This is the first of the handmade Christmas gifts I made in 2016.  A wowligan for my niece, who turned 3 last fall and loves animals, buttons, and the color yellow.  This yellow sweater has 12 owls and 27 buttons.

I bought the worsted-weight yarn before I settled on the pattern, and it is significantly heavier than what the pattern calls for, so I had to wing it on the sizing.

The circumference ended up being 24", and although I haven't seen her wear it in person, from pictures it looks like it fits.

The biggest problem I had was with the buttons that fasten the sweater closed - I forgot to do a thread shank when I sewed them on, and they were way too tight.  I couldn't even get the buttonholes around them, so I cut off the buttons and re-sewed them.  They were much better the second time, but there still wasn't really enough room between the buttons and the button-band.  Next time I'll try to do better ....


Pattern: Wowligan
Size: 24", but I used the stitch counts for the smallest size
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Worsted (100% superwash wool) in Buttercup, 2 skeins
Needles:  US size 8, I think
Started/Completed: December 2016/December 2016
Modifications: Used worsted rather than sport weight yarn.  I used the stitch counts for the smallest size and the length measurements from one of the larger sizes.

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