DS, DDIL, and the kids travel a lot. The kids are getting some fantastic experiences already in life, including a lot of farm stays. Since this post I’ve been knitting on Alex’s Minnowknits Faux Fisherman pullover for Christmas. I still need to do the neck edging and wet block it.
As little Evelyn’s Minnowknits hat was on hold, I searched for another pattern, again, hoping I could be a blind follower and not have to adjust stitch and row count because of gauge diffs. When I found this Drops/Garnstudio pattern, I just had to knit it. It will remind Evelyn of her times at the various farms she’s been to.
I find knitting cables and texture stitches to be tedious sometimes, well, a LOT of times! I’m really a color pattern knitter, it’s what my hands like to do best, so this hat was a nice reprieve from cabling, even though, once again, I had to adjust the pattern to fit my yarn and gauge. The hat pattern didn’t come with mittens, but what is a hat without mittens? So, I designed mittens to match. As there’s just 32 sts in these wee mittens, I ran the color pattern around the palm as well as the back of the hand, instead of working a separate pattern for the palm. One can’t get up a head of steam while changing patterns every 18 sts, especially while working a pictorial, like this one.
The yarns used were two Lamb’s Pride Worsted yarns, one Lanaloft Worsted, and two Cascade Yarns Ecological wool yarns - all heavy worsted wt, knit snugly on US 7’s.
The kids’ birthdays also flank Christmas, one in December, one in January, so more knitting is needed. I’ll design a cabled cap and mittens in the same grey to match Alex’s pullover, and for Evelyn, another cute hat and mitten set. Also a Drops/Garnstudio pattern - Warmhearted Hat.
But, no blind following for this design either! It was designed as a tam, with increases then decreases to shape the tam. I changed it to a regular hat, and changed the color patterns. I must have re-charted this hat 6 times, before I got the balance of motif and color to please my eye. The hat is wet blocking and awaiting its pompom.
The Warmhearted Mittens that go with the hat has dice around the entire mitten, which I changed to stripes on half the mitten. 2-st patterns go much faster than pictorials! With the thumbs at the sides, the mittens can be worn with the stripes on the back or on the palm - wearer’s choice.
They have tons of toys and art supplies, so the kids will be getting knits if and until they outgrow wearing things that Grandma (moi) makes. If I’m lucky, and mindful of whatever trends they’ll be following as they grow up, I might be able to knit for them for a long time to come. Fingers crossed!
Onward,
Dawn
