It has been a cold winter

...and it´s not over yet! Another hat and neckwarmer was finished some time during November as far as I can recall. The Norwegian winter can be quite cold, at least for some weeks at the time. These brown goodies came to use as the temperature reached - 28 before Christmas...

Again my own very simple pattern made up as I went. I used:

5 balls of Puno alpaca from Rauma (a bit more than 2 balls for the hat because of the very long rib)

Needles: 7 mm circulars

Hat knitted back and forth:

Cast on 56 st and knit a 12 cm 2 x 2 rib

From the reverseside; knit one row

Knit another row while increasing to 108 stitches

Knit another row

Knit blackberry stitches (click for tutorial) for 12 cm

Decrease: place a stitch marker every 15 st.

1st row: *knit 13 st, knit 2 tog*

2nd row: knit all st

Repeat 1st and 2nd row until 7 st left on needle. Pull the yarn through the remaining sts and saw the hats edges together using a blunt needle.



Neckwarmer knitted back and forth:

Cast om 132 st and knit blackberry stitches (klick for tutorial) for as long as the yarn allows. Make sure you save a few yards for the binding off. Bind off.

First FOs 2013

Who would have thought it should be more than a year between my previous post and this one? I most certainly did not intend to make a blogbreak at all, when posting the patterned paper eyecandy post on january 27th 2012... The latest few weeks I have been discussing with myself: Am I ready to start bloggingg on a more regular and frequent basis again? I guess this post is my tentative answer :o

The first FOs of 2013 was this calorimetry and neckwarmer - and eventually wristwarmers. The yarn is Mirasol handpainted, a 100 % alpaca quality from du store alpakka.

I found a pretty and colour-matching button in my stash - praise to the generations of thrifty women! Free Calorimetry pattern here

My own pattern for the necwarmer is very simple:

2 balls of Mirasol
Cast on 112 st on 3,5 mm circular needle
Knit a 2 x 2 rib for about 4 cm
Knit double moss stitch the next 25 cm
Knit a 2 x 2 rib for about 4 cm
Bind off. Voila!

My own pattern for the wristwarmers is equally simple and would be easily adapted for a bigger amount of yarn (= longer armwarmers). I just divided my remaining yarn into two balls and made the wristwarmers as long as the yarn allowed. As you can see, I left a button hole when seaming up the wristwarmers. Again, I found a couple of matching vintage buttons in my stash and fastened them securely on the inside of the wristwarmers, allowing just enough space for the thumb.