I have recently reunited with a high school friend via Blogland and we’ve been having a good time exchanging ideas and knowledge. She’s expecting a baby boy so I sent her a little hat and mitts set.

**Click HERE for the mitten pattern**

The pattern for the Stay-Put Mitts are from Sknitty.wordpress.com. I found it on Ravelry. They knitted up quickly and I really liked the twisted rib stitch on the cuff.

The pattern for the hat is as follows:

Worsted weight yarn, a skein of each color (you don’t need a whole skein)
size 7 circular needle
size 7 double points
darning needle

Cast on 64 stitches in your main color (MC). Connect the last stitch to the first being sure not to twist your work. Place a stitch marker if you need to. Make a rib of k2, p2 for five rows. Knit 3 rounds of contrast color (CC), then 4 rounds of main color. Either cut the yarn each time you change colors (leaving a six-inch tail), or carry up the yarn when you need to use it. If you do this, don’t pull too tightly when you bring in the next color or else it will make a gap in your work. *K 3 rounds CC, K 4 rounds MC* two more times. K 3 rounds CC and cut yarn leaving a six-inch tail. Knit 1 round MC and begin decreasing as follows:
*K2tog, k6*, repeat till end of round.
K 1 round
*K2tog, k5*, repeat till end of round.
K 1 round
*K2tog, k4*, repeat till end of round.
K 1 round. While doing this, transfer to the double points as you go so there are about 14 stitches on each needle (four in all).
*K2tog, k3*, repeat till end of round.
K 1 round
*K2tog, k2*, repeat till end of round.
K 1 round
*K2tog, k1*, repeat till end of round.
K 1 round
*K2tog*, repeat till end of round.
Cut yarn, leaving a long tail and with darning needle, run the yarn through the rest of the stitches and pull shut. Weave in all ends.

Pickles has done it again — inspired me to make something different and awesome. Springtime is right around the corner, but for us Alaskans, this time means anything from sunny cold days to whipping wind. Nothing is more appropriate than the Simple Luxury Scarf (or as I’m calling it, the Cotton Candy). It’s light and airy, delicate and soft. It’s perfectly bulky and squishy.

I used a combination of Cascade Yarn’s acrylic aran and some Rowan mohair/silk combo. The affordable price of the Cascase made up for the expensive mohair.

I learned my lesson on this project never to buy cheap needles. I bought some long, plastic 15 circular needles the other day and this was my first time using them. They broke halfway through my project. Thanks to a shoddy hot glue gun, I was uncomfortably able to finish, and I am happy I did.

Pickles’ pattern is pretty straightforward. I have yet to understand grams instead of meters or yards. I used one 100g ball of Cascade, about 240 yards, and one 25g ball of mohair, about 220 yards. The pattern calls for two 50 g balls of mohair but the 25g ball was perfect for my one ball of aran. I only had about 12 inches of mohair left when I finished the project. The other thing that wasn’t really explained was the reason for the final K3M1 row. I wasn’t sure if it was M1F like I’d been doing the whole time, but I just did a regular make one and it created a pretty decorative edge.

Definitely a project worth doing again and again.

My friend Kasandra requested a pair of long, fingerless gloves because her classroom gets really chilly in the winter. I decided to alter my Cabled Gauntlets pattern for her.

I used the same yarn, Universal Yarn Classic Shades, but there were a couple of things I did differently. First, I cast on 37 stitches instead of 36. This way the moss stitch is created without having to change the pattern of the stitch every time you get back to the beginning of the round. When I was finished with the moss stitch and was ready to start the cable pattern, I just knit two stitches together and carried on my way. Second (and most obvious), I extended the cable pattern. I did seven cables before starting on the gusset. Third, I knit a couple of more rows after joining the thumb. I think I did rows 1-6 one more time and then started the moss stitch, at which point I created one stitch to make 37 as I did in the beginning. And last, I made the thumb three rows tall with three rows of moss stitch.
Kasandra got them in the mail today and said, “It was love at first sight.” I guess she likes them!