READY FOR WINTER - KNIT HAT AND SCARF PATTERNS

Ever since my Roving Acres yarn arrived, I've been DYING to get to work on my winter hat and scarf.  When I contacted Beth at Roving Acres about getting a custom-dyed yarn, I asked for a variegated that went from very light gray to charcoal.  And that's exactly what I got.  The alpaca/merino wool is soft and luxurious, but is going to be so wonderfully warm when the temperatures drop.  (Considering we had about five minutes of snow flurries the other afternoon, I think I'm getting this done none too soon.)

The hat pattern is the Hurricane Hat (free pattern here), using a 16" size 7 circular needle and a set of size 7 double-pointed needles.  I actually made this hat out of a variegated acrylic yarn in the spring as one of my first, practice knitting projects.  It actually worked (a boost to the new knitter), but I made it a little small.  I liked the pattern, though, with the swirl design, and ordered the wool yarn with this hat in mind.  Foghorn saw the finished product this week and immediately said, "Can you make one for me?"  Well, it so happened I still had that acrylic one from the spring that was a wee bit too small and was of a similar variegated gray color.  She's thrilled.  I think my husband is planning how to hide when my daughter and I go out in our matching hats.  We already harass him with our 1970s-patterned matching pajamas.

The scarf is the same pattern as I used for my mother's scarf/cowl (found here).  Again, I used size 8 needles and cast on 38 stitches (making it about 8-1/2" wide).  In total I had about 550 yards of the Roving Acres yarn, so I made the hat first and then just worked on the scarf until I ran out of yarn.  After making the scarf for my mother I was totally in love with the waffle-y texture and had to the do a duplicate for myself.

Both patterns are easy enough for a novice knitter, but have enough variety to be interesting to work on and they produce nice finished items.   Next up, I'm thinking a new, more sophisticated dog sweater for St. Jimmi...








You might also be interested in:

*  FOUR FABULOUS FREE CHRISTMAS STOCKING KNITTING PATTERNS

*  SO MAD I COULD KNIT