My dear mother when asked if she would like anything in particular made for her for Christmas wasn’t sure at first. Until she saw me flipping through my binder of printed off patterns and saw the Sheep & Wool hat. But she didn’t just want the hat. She wanted matching mittens. And a matching scarf. This was four weeks ago. I drew the line at the scarf and told her I’d compromise with a neckwarmer. She wasn’t sure about that, but I think she realized I wasn’t moving on the no scarf boundary. She got to pick her colors (Chestnut Brown and Aquamarine) and I got to find some patterns to base the mittens and neckwarmer off of.
The Hat
Project: Sheep & Wool Hat by Emily Spence [Rav Link]
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool
Needle Size: US7 & US8
Ravelry Project Page
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| Another picture that doesn't want to orient the correct way. |
I did make a few adjustments on this. I just couldn’t bring myself to do a double turned over brim like the pattern has. I also used ribbing on the other pieces, so I decided to do seven rows of 1x1 ribbing. While I cast on for the smaller size, I did work an extra fives rows in the square pattern and I added two more rows of solid before starting the decreasing. The hat in the pics looked a little shorter and I wanted to make sure Mom’s ears don’t get cold. And my head is a bit rounder than Mom’s. For me I would have went with the larger size. So don’t judge a project by big head pics.
See my new glasses? And my pic that apparently lived in an alternate time warp of 1976?
The Mittens
Project: Quo Vadis Mittens by SpillyJane
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool
Needle Size: US5
Ravelry Project Page
I had to take these down two stitches to be able to work the pattern. And I’m thinking I should have went up three stitches instead. They are snug enough on me to make me worry. While I inherited my mom’s long fingers, I’m thinking her hands are a bit narrower than mine. Hoping they are. Praying they are. Please Santa?
These were pretty much blocked into an inch of their lives. Or possibly a millimeter.
I’m thinking I’d like to maybe make these mittens with the original design sometime. I have an alarming stash of wools. Didn’t we all want to felt everything at some time? This pattern has that thumb that makes me nervous though. The one where you make the thumb by knitting in a piece of scrap yarn and removing it. I spend the rest of the mitten eyeing that thinking “What if I did it wrong?”
The Neckwarmer
Project: Thermis Neckwarmer by KrisKnits
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool
Needle Size: US6
Ravelry Project Page
I cast on for the smaller size. Hence the tightness on me. While I have lost 20 lbs, I don’t think my neck got much skinnier. It should work for Mom, though. I do wish I would have done this differently, though. I should have thought through the whole project when doing my ribbing. I worked the inch of ribbing like the Thermis pattern says. What I didn’t think through was that I had to do multiples of five for the squared pattern. So, when I ended my last set of squares my neckwarmer was getting pretty long and I thought I was pushing it to work the top ribbing as long as I was supposed to, so I think it looks a little off to have the REALLY long bottom ribbing and the REALLY short top. But it is what it is. Life will go on.
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