Pretty much straight-up Victoria Anne Baker's Treads pattern, except I needed to use one size smaller DPNs and leave out a few rows in the second panel of linen ridge. I love the lateral braid technique, a new one for me.
Our basement is a chilly place to sit and type; it's also my partner's new full-time office during the social isolation we're lucky to be able to practice while COVID-19 threatens our communities. (Happy our income still exists; profoundly grateful to the people risking their own health to do vital jobs while we lay low here trying not to be disease vectors.) His hands are especially cold -- so I designed these to fit him and provide some warmth without getting in the way of typing or of long sleeves.
Also to show off some neat slip-stitch colorwork. Yarns: a nice soft something or other from a friend's stash, plus some of the Berroco Ultra Wool left over from my mittens. I designed these mittens with a honeycomb slip-stitch pattern for general prettiness and with a hidden opening for my right index finger so that I can to check text messages or take a picture with the rest of my hand still warm. The opening has a flap inside to avoid gapping. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Wool in Black Pepper and Cascade 220 in ... well ... blue of some kind. This is a fun little hat of my own design, though it uses the decreases and crown from Kristin Briney's Fairy Lights pattern. When worn, it looks like a regular beanie from the front but whimsically elven from the side.
Shoutout to my friend Janet for the passing-along of this sweet worsted weight yarn of unknown brand/color. I played fast and loose with decreases--and threw in some decorative increases--with this one, mostly because I wanted to add stitches for fit and decided to wing it with regard to the top of the hat. Yarns: Classic Elite Liberty Wool in Bronze Sky (very nearly the entire skein, whew) and Berroco Ultra Wool in Maritime.
Six sweet garland stitch triangles strung together on raffia ribbon. Each triangle measures about 4 inches wide at the top x 4.5 inches tall.
This cowl was knit holding yarn double to allow for the interesting color shifts and has a clever split at the bottom so it can sit under a coat without bunching. (You knit each panel flat and then join them to work the rest in the round.) The pattern, Flying Solo, is free to download at Ravelry. I know it looks absurdly long for a cowl, but if you look at the pattern, you'll see how it drapes when worn. I used Holst Garn Noble (a fingering-weight geelong/cashmere blend) in Eggplant, Quarry, and Blue Stone. This yarn feels more like linen or hemp while knitting but blooms when wet blocked. Below, you can see the fabric before (left) and after (right) a gentle warm water bath. The stitches filled out and softened, leaving a denser and squishier garment. The bind-off method is no joke, though! It's a tubular bind-off based on the Kitchener Stitch and involves doing this setup step, plus a weird pattern of sewing while somehow not allowing stitches to pop off the four available needle ends ...
Sweet, shy baby bat wrapped up in its garter-stitch wings. This is actually the first time I've ever used plastic "safety eyes"--thanks to my child for letting me grab some from his stash. Knit in Cascade 220 black, stands about 3.5 inches tall.
Although it's not the season to enjoy these bright and cozy new mitts, I know I'll be happy to have them come winter. They're my learning-stranded-colorwork project, and they proved great fun to make. (And although the insides initially looked like a rainbow yarn monster had puked voluminously, weaving in the ends turned out not to be so bad.) I modified Nguyen Le's Fingerless Mittens pattern in Color Knitting with Confidence just a bit, changing the color sequence and both cast-on and bind-off methods. The background neutral here is Berroco Ultra Wool's Driftwood, with accents in Cascade 220 colors from the household stash. I only started blocking my knitting projects in the past few months. This project serves as a good example of why one might want to do this step, at least sometimes: check out the blobby wonky distended unblocked (left) and nice tidy wet-blocked (right) mitts below.
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