Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's officially winter which has seen an increase in requests from friends and family for knitty and crochet goodies.


Firstly are these Braided Mitts (Ravelry log on required if you want the pattern).  Made for a friend who is a gent, was worried they were going to be a bit small, but the sizing was perfect.  Used Deramore Stylecraft DK in Grey for them, on size 5mm circular needles.  I knit in the round on two circular needles, I find this the easiest way to knit in the round for smaller diameters. A video tutorial for this  can be found here.

These pretty wee things are Diagonal Eyelet Hand Warmers this time for my Filipino friend who always feeds me delicious food.

These were knit flat and then seamed, leaving a gap for the thumbs rather than knitting up a thumb gussett.  This made them super easy and fast to make up, and the eyelets make an interesting pattern.  Used around 2/3 of a 50g ball of Moda Vera 100% pure wool..  They looked small when made, but the eyelets actually allow a bit of stretch.

Green Hallows

O.k so this one has been 8 months in the making. Last winter I made my son a Pink & Purple Hallows Cardigan  I found Here on Ravelry and he LOVED it so much so that he asked for a Green and Black one.
As it started to get too warm before I finished it I put it aside enjoyed our unseasonably hot summer and didn't think anything more of it. But now it's cooling down again I decided to pick it up and finish it and aside from sewing in some ends and picking buttons it's done.

I had decided I didn't like the sleeves in the pattern and that I would make up my own pattern for the sleeves which I've never done before but I thought worst comes to worst I rip it back and start again.

My sleeve pattern went something like this:

Sleeves

Pick up 64 stitches along shoulder edge (1 stitch per 2 rows).
Knit 9 rows.
Decrease every 9 rows until 40 stitches left.

Work 9 rows in 2x2 rib, change to body colour and knit another 3 rows following the 2x2 rib.

Cast off.

The always popular Calorimetry headband

This pattern is hugely popular on Ravelry - there are 15781 finished posts of it on Rav and I have made around 20 myself.  They knit up super quickly, only takes around a couple of hours and uses about 50g wool, 100g if you double strand which I do, making it super chunky.  On 5mm kneedles, this is a great pattern for new knitters, it's the closest "instant gratification" project out there.

Some important info before you jump into the pattern; the original pattern knits up HUGE.  So, for adult size ones I cast on 90 and repeated row five 9 times and even this has proved pretty generous on those with smaller heads.  For kids, I cast on 70 and repeated row five 7 times.  Because this is a rib knit, it has a bit of give, so knitting it smaller is highly recommended.  Conversely, I have in the past put buttons on both ends on opposite sides; the pattern makes a number of different holes for the buttons in a decorative manner, so it can be made smaller if needs be.

You b*tches better appreciate the photo of myself that I included.