This yellow scarf is from a lovely soft yarn. It’s 2×2 rib with a garter stitch end just to make it more interesting…

Yellow Scarf

And these hats were knit as a not-quite-pair for my great niece Julie and her new sister Ivy. The ruffles around Ivy’s hat were done by casting on 3x the number of stitches I needed and doing a few rounds (just ordinary all-knit-stitch hat knitting) and then knitting three together all the way around to reduce the number of stitches. Julie’s hat is lots of 2×2 rib for extra warmth, then all purl for the blue stripe for texture, then regular all-knit for the white. I also made a matching blue hat for my sister (their grandmother) so that everyone kind of coordinated. The picture of that one is here: blue-and-white hat. I know the blues don’t look the same in the photos but oh well.

Sisters in Hats

Warm hat, I hope

My sister feels the cold. And she likes the hats I make her. So this one is a Christmas present for her (oh well, there goes the surprise). It’s similar in design to the pink/purple hat I made myself, but looser (so I could felt it a bit), and then I added the neck edge so that there would be THREE layers over her ears, and strings so it would be nice and snug. Hope she likes it.

For this hat, I took an existing hat that was just a smidge too short (it was made from exactly one skein of obscenely expensive cashmere) and picked up stitches all the way around, then did a few rounds of garter stitch, then reduced by one stitch in eight (I knit two together every eight stitches), then did a two-by-two rib for the same number of rounds as the garter stitch. I bound off very loosely and left a very long tail. Then I flipped in the ribbing and hemmed it to the original edge of the hat. Much warmer, nice and snug, and just the right length.

This scarf is yet another iteration of the scarf shown in this post: I’ve Been Doing Some Knitting. What can I say? Any pattern I can knit in the dark…

I made my hat first–it’s a 2×2 rib in ridiculous expensive cashmere from Lobster Pot Yarns–and then Stacia tried to steal it, and asked for one of her own for Christmas. So I made hers from the same yarn, but improved the design a bit. 1×1 rib is certainly prettier but it takes FOREVER.

Diana and Stacia in matching hats

The cable pattern is:

2 purl, cable 2 back, 1 purl, cable 2 forward, 2 purl

which creates this pattern, when done every four rows…

But the dark and the weather does drive me to sit and knit, and projects that have been languishing for months get finished and new ones get started. A few days ago, I started two new scarves:

Elly and two scarves

This is a new pattern to me, although it’s quite popular. I am using size 8 needles with DK-weight yarn, two different colors silk-merino blends (from the old company Dyed in the Wool, bought using EBay), and 29 stitches. Two rows in each color of 1×1 rib (knit one, purl one, all the way across), with the first stitch of each row slipped.

The cool thing about the 1×1 rib is that it scrunches up pretty densely, the scarf hangs nicely with no “wrong side,” and it looks cool with hand-dyed yarn.

This is the blue scarf finished (I ran out of the lighter blue, so time to stop).

Blues in silk and merino

(And yes, that’s a handknitted blanket that Elly is resting on. It’s also from the same silk-merino blend I made the scarves from, in yet another shade of blues. Garter stitch, and lots and lots of yarn. Two winters ago.)

Peach Scarf (silk merino sock yarn)

Green Scarf (washable wool)

Rose and Blues Scarf (silk-merino sock yarn)

The scarves are all three from the same pattern, one I found on the ‘net, called “Two Evenings with Warrick”–apparently the creator of the pattern was a CSI fan. (I thought of her when Warrick was killed off in the first episode this season. Easy come, easy go… but a little scarf immortality.) I can’t find the directions any more, but I modified them anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

Anyway, I made them on size 6 (American) straight needles, cast on 26 stitches; two are made from sock yarn, and one is made from slightly heavier yarn. It was what I had. One skein.

The pattern is worked over four rows.

Knit three rows, then:
Knit one, Knit two together twice, Yarn Over and Knit One (Repeat four times), Knit two together four times, Yarn Over and Knit One (Repeat four times), Knit two together twice, Knit one.

Keep repeating this four-row pattern until you either run out of yarn or the scarf is the length you want. Then cast off, loosely, on a knit row.

It is possible to work this pattern while watching TV, once you get the rhythm going. I assume that’s why the original pattern mentioned CSI.

I also made a pink and cream cashmere hat. This hat is a Christmas present for my daughter, but since I got her approval of the yarn before even starting, I’m not exactly giving away secrets here. I’d probably even give it to her early if the weather got cold enough to merit it.

Pink and cream cashmere hat

The hat is a 1×1 rib, 76 stitches knitted in the round on size 8 circular needles, from two skeins of obscenely expensive hand-dyed cashmere from Lobster Pot yarns. The cream is the bulky weight yarn; the pink is the worsted weight. (You can buy this yarn here: Purlsoho, NYC. ) I knitted the cream until I ran out, then the pink until I almost ran out, then decreased by knitting two together all the way around, knitting a round, then knitting two together again, until I had about 9 stitches, then I ran the yarn through and pulled VERY tight. I made myself this hat last year, in purple and cream, and found it to be warm enough on even the very coldest days. My daughter bikes year round, and threatened to steal my hat. The cashmere just gets softer and fluffier when you wash it. It’s a real joy to knit with.

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