A pretty waving lace pattern covers a snuggly scarf that uses just 100g of DK-weight yarn. The pattern directions contain both charted and written instructions for the lace design and is easily adjustable for a longer scarf.

Size: 18cm x 92cm (7” x 36”), after blocking
Yarn: Tess Dawson Baby Alpaca DK (100% alpaca) 2 x 50g, shown in shade #05 (Cherry), or up to 200m of another DK weight yarn
Tension: 22 stitches x 32 rows to 10cm/4” in stocking stitch with 4mm (US size 6) needles, or size need to obtain correct tension

3 page pattern is in pdf format, downloadable immediately after purchase.

Price: £2.00

Pattern: Ingrid by Lori Law
Yarn: Sirdar Aran with Wool, 1 x 100g ball in colour: #0931
Needles: 4.5mm Addi circs

This was going to be the Bertie scarf that I started a couple of weeks ago. But while randomly toodling around Ravelry, I saw this scarf and changed my mind like the fickle knitter I am. Having stash yarn to knit it with helped, of course. Using stash is A Good Thing.

The pattern is well-written, with charts AND written instructions for the chart haters. I didn’t change much. As it is written, the first half is knitted then the cast on stitches are picked up and the second half knitted up, but I did a provisional cast on instead. And that was it!

The yarn is fairly basic, acrylic rich Sridar stuff. However, it softened after washing and I do think it is probably a bit more practical than the merino aran I used for the Fetching mittens, as it won’t do anything too weird if it ends up in the washing machine. I got a good length scarf; approximately 130cm long.

So I can tick another present off the list. It also meets with eldest small person’s approval, which is the most important thing of all, as it’s for his teacher.

I did a Google image search for “winter warmers” and this was on the first page. I would LOVE to have a big fire like that right now. *shivers*

Anyway, there is a UK winter warmers swap starting shortly on the UK Swap blog. Signups close on 30th November, so there’s still time to join. I’m looking forward to taking part as the last swap I did was Sockapalooza 4, which is about 18 months ago now! I love all the cloak and dagger stuff with secret emails and cryptic messages. I am a very good stalker, which should probably worry me..!

I got a card in the post at the end of last week from those lovely people at Innocent:

In it there is a handwritten note saying that they loved my stripey hats. Now, considering they received over half a million little hats, that means someone had to make a note of every parcel of the thousands that came in, who it came from and a distinguishing feature of that parcel’s contents. Next year I will be sending them twice as many hats as I did this year; I think it’s the least I can do.

I also wanted to thank everyone who commented here, on Ravelry or sent an email after the Winter issue of The Inside Loop went live. Not only for the comments about my socks , but about the whole issue. It’s amazing and gratifying to see how many visitors the site has received over the past few days, and to see people casting on (and in one case, finishing) projects from this issue.

So I’ve been on a post-publishing high for the past few days, added to which Mr B and I went to see Bill Bailey on Saturday night and I love him even more now. It’s time to come back to Earth and point out that December starts next week and there is still festive knitting to be done! I have one present blocking as I type, and one more only a few pattern repeats away from being finished. If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t even have the yarn for one present yet, I’d feel almost organised…

Amongst the gorgeous patterns in the new issue of The Inside Loop, there is one small sock pattern modelled by a certain someone standing on my side table in my back garden. On the wettest day imaginable, just to add insult to injury.

Pattern: Pablo, by me!
Yarn: Wild Fire Fibres merino/tencel in “Pablo”
Needles: 2.5mm KnitPicks circs

But it’s so nice to share some secret knitting that seems to have been hiding for months. This pattern took a long time to wriggle its way out on to the yarn. I think this is the third or fourth stitch pattern that I tried with the yarn and that finally pleased me enough to create a whole pair of socks. The yarn is gorgeous and soft and shiny, but it doesn’t like dainty or intense patterns and it was definitely a learning experience.

Speaking of the yarn, the colour was named, I assume, after Pablo Picasso. But I chose the colour because the name reminded me of Pablo The Little Red Fox. Yep, I’m sophisticated, I am.

But did you see? I used Magic Loop! After knitting Mr B’s Anniversary Socks, I completely fell for knitting socks in this way. I swear they are quicker; there’s definitely a lot less switching around of needles than with dpns. And best of all, it means I can have more than one pair on the go at the same time… *evil grin*

Pattern: Rubinette by Erssie Major
Yarn: Cygnet Wool Rich Aran, about three-quarters of a skein in Black
Needles: 4.5mm Addi Turbos
Seriously. Black yarn is really hard to knit with because you can’t see the stitches easily and then when you’ve finally finished your project you can’t photograph it because every photo looks like you have a black lump on your head. I’ve whacked the brightness up on this photo a stupid amount, and it will have to do for now… *grumbles*

Colour complaints aside, I love this hat! I wanted to knit a plain hat that would go with my winter coat and Erssie’s new pattern was perfect. The shape is a very simple elongated beanie which suits me far better than a regular beanie as I can perch it on the back of my head. I wore it this morning on a dash to the post office in a drizzle and it kept me dry and snug. Plus it has a pompom on the top which is very cheering.

The yarn is the black Cynet Wool Rich Aran left over from the manly hat; I’d barely used any at all, so I had no fear of running out. It’s definitely becoming a favourite yarn. I just wish the colour selection was even better.

By my reckoning, I have three more gifts left to make, so it’s now back to festive knitting!

Why yes, it’s another Bertie.

I am knitting this one with Bergere de France Lima, a wool/alpaca blend yarn, which I bought over a year ago because it was new and interesting had alpaca in it. So it promptly sat in my stash for 12 months because I didn’t have any projects to make with it. At least I am learning to stash project amounts of yarn as I bought two balls not just one, so I could at least do *something* with it eventually. Yes, Debbie Bliss and your tempting but expensive Pure Silk DK, I’m looking at you.

Generally, I’m trying very hard to not to add to my stash by buying yarn just because they “look nice”. I do want to try Sirdar Balmoral because it also contains alpaca (what can I say? I’m obsessed!) and comes in a delicious purple, but it will just sit in my stash for ages, so there’s no point. All my recent yarn purchases have been yarns that have been used immediately, so not adding to my stash (though not reducing it…) and I really do want to avoid SABLE, if only for the sake of poor Mr B who might come home to find me squished under a mountain of yarn one day.

But back to the scarf. Once I’ve knitted the first repeat, the pattern is almost memorised, so although it’s not a quick project, it’ll fairly mindless. And if I can bear to part with something made with alpaca, this is going to be another teacher’s Christmas present.

I’m a little late this year, but yesterday I finally got around to making a Christmas cake. For the entire day, the scent of warm fruit and brandy spread through the house and I was almost whistling Jingle Bells by bedtime.

I wish I could say that the recipe was handed down my family through the generations, but this one comes from a Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook published in 1998. But what is most important is that the recipe makes the BEST Christmas cake. One year I strayed and used Nigella’s recipe and much as I love her cupcakes, muffins, cookies and general chocolately goodness, the cake was a disappointment. I have never strayed again.

The cake has been bathed in brandy and is now sitting wrapped in the back of the larder until I decide that maybe it needs a bit more feeding in the run up to the Big Day.

Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath
Yarn: Tess Dawson Merino Aran, 1¼ x 50g balls in shade 04 (Teal)
Needles: 4mm Brittany Birch dpns

A couple of years ago, when I was furiously knitting socks as Christmas loomed ever closer, I wish I’d thought about knitting these. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have had any aran weight yarn in my stash, or something stupid like that. But by gum these are QUICK! I cast on the first mitt on Saturday evening and had cast off the second by Sunday lunchtime. I guess over 6,800 finished pairs on Ravelry should be a bit of a clue that these are A Good Project.

There’s not much to say about the pattern that hasn’t been said before. Like many people, I had to break into a second ball of yarn. I got almost to the thumb on the second mitt before I needed the second ball, though. I didn’t do the picot cast off because I couldn’t get it to look nice, so just cast off in the 4 x 1 rib. I also kept crossing the cables the wrong way on the second mitt which was just annoying more than anything else.

The yarn was lovely to knit with. I had planned on making these with alpaca and envisaged the softest mittens ever made, but after I’d cast on and worked the first cable round, I changed my mind. Alpaca doesn’t have the same amount of “give” as wool, and as these are knitted at a tighter than usual tension, it was going to be a bit of a slog. So merino it was, and I’m really pleased with the result. Knitting for someone I have no idea about is always risky, but I have seen the teacher these mitts are for wearing a dark teal scarf, so I figured that she would like the colour. Plus she is young (I know I’m getting old when the teachers are ten years younger than me ) so probably not averse to cute wristwarmers.

I have also finished one secret project in the past week, so my total of finished Christmas knits currently stands at 3. *is smug*

Pattern: NHM #7 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea
Yarn: Rowan Classic Cashsoft 4ply, about three-quarters of 1 x 50g in Cream and about half of 1 x 50g in Black.
Needles: 2.5mm Addi metal dpns

Note for those of you in the UK: I bought my copy of Selbuvotter from KCG Trading. Buying from them means you’re helping support the Knitting and Crochet Guild and their work in promoting and raising awareness of knitting and crochet in the UK and are generally being a nice person, plus with the exchange rate being screwy at the moment, it works out cheaper than ordering from the US so you can be smug about it as well.

Hurrah for my first mittens! There are so many things I have never knitted, so I’m pleased that I can finally cross mittens off the list.

The whole Selbuvotter book is brilliant that it was hard to pick just one pattern, but these were the ones I loved best when I first got the book. They won’t be my last, either. I need a lot more picking-up-of-thumb-stitches practice, after all.

I love the way the thumb gusset grows from a series of backward loop stitches cast on as you work the bottom half of the mitt. It gave me a strange amount of pleasure to make the little loops and see the palm get wider.

Picking up stitches for the second mitt ended up slightly better, but I still couldn’t get the pattern aligned. I also buggered up the stitch pattern a bit, but can live with it. The second mitt also ended up being smaller than the first. I’d always read that once you relax with your knitting, it gets looser, so why that should be, I don’t know. But the size difference is not enough to be noticeable til you put them on and who else will be wearing them except me? *guards mittens from lurking mitten thieves*

I’ll be magic looping my next pair for certain. I wanted to follow the pattern as given to start with because I am a coward, but I magic looped the thumb on the second mitt and it was so much easier than wrestling with three needles each with a tiny number of stitches.

I suspect my yarn choice probably won’t be as hard-wearing as, say, a Shetland yarn, but the mitts are so soft that I don’t mind in the slightest. It feels virtuous to have used stash for once instead of deciding that nothing I have will do. I have issues about using stash for gifts, but that’s another long and rambling post, I think.

And a final self-indulgent photo of the inside of the mittens, because I love how the pattern looks in reverse:

For the record, I think the next pair I make will be either NHM #9 (Ravelry link) or NHM #3. Ruth started these recently and hers made me want some as well! They can be my reward for finishing at least one pair of Christmas socks for MrB!

Pattern: Beth by Diane Mulholland
Yarn: Angora 50 from The Little Knitting Company (50% angora/30% wool/20% nylon) 2 x 25g balls in “Sage”
Needles: 4mm Inox circs of slippery pointyness – I started out using Addi bamboo cirs, but quickly changed to the Inox. The yarn needs a slippery needle, I think.

The first of my festive knits is finished, and it’s barely November.

The pattern is brilliant. Sure, it’s just four rows repeated over and over again with an edging, but the result is so pretty and as Heather said, it looks kind of old-fashioned/antiquey and elegant, which also describes my Grandma, so it will be perfect for her. The whole scarf weighs barely 50g, which means that it’s as light as a feather. In the end, I got carried away with the rhythm of the pattern that I kept going for longer than I had intended and this is what is left over from the second ball of yarn:

Pretty close to running out again. I seem to like knitting on the edge . The finished scarf is approximately 145cm (57inches) in length, which is possibly a little long, but that means there’s more scarf to wrap around a couple of times for a very warm neck.

The yarn, as I have said before, is just beautiful. I’ll be buying much more of it in the future. Fantastic price, generous meterage, soft like a kitten, knitted up evenly, no knots, blocked easily and need I say more? Shame the colour is a PITA to photograph! The closeup of the edging is truest to “real life”, the outside pictures are too pale.

* * * * *

In the meantime, I’ve also had a rethink about the other knitted gifts I was planning. I don’t want to be stressed out and knitting like a madwoman trying to get everything done this year, like I usually do. And though it seems shocking, some people would be just as happy with something that isn’t knitted (unbelievable as it sounds)! So a couple of items have been crossed off the list and the sense of relief I feel shows that it was probably the right thing to do.

However, I’m knitting for the small people’s teachers this year. Usually I buy them each a Lush gift box. But although the products are gorgeous, I am at heart a packaging strumpet, and sticking unwrapped products in a box of popcorn doesn’t scream “nice gift” to me, no matter how ethical and bunny friendly the contents are. So instead I’m planning a couple of stashbusting projects in gorgeous yarns – a pair of Fetching mitts for one teacher and a tootle of my own trumpet with a Bertie for the other. They will be beautifully giftwrapped with ribbons and tissue and all that palaver, but if I can get recycled wrapping I will, so that I don’t feel too evil.

It dawned on me this week that, apart from the Endpaper Mitts, I have never knitted a single pair mittens or gloves. Of course, there were the ill-fated Winter Garden mittens which just proved that I don’t have any colour sense, but they’re the exception.

It’s certainly not due to a lack of suitable patterns. I have Knitting New Mittens and Gloves, as well as a copy of the much sought-after Mostly Mittens by Charlene Schurch. But as I’ve also been gifted some very lovely mittens in the past as well, it’s never been very high on my list of priorities.

Then, earlier in the year, I chanced a peek at Diane’s copy of Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition. This book follows the story of the beautiful Norwegian mittens and gloves and contains over 30 patterns adapted from original mittens and gloves. I love the simplicity of the black and white colour scheme – no chance of me messing that up! – and snaffled my own copy of the book a few months ago.

So lots of mitten patterns, but no completed mittens. And then last week, Winter came. It took everyone by surprise, I think, as we dashed out in the week to buy winter coats for the small people who are never quite small enough to fit into the previous year’s coats. I realised that fingerless mitts just weren’t going to cut it this year, and my fingers needed to be warm as well.

After a quick stash dive for some RYC Cashsoft 4ply in black and cream, I started my own pair of Selbuvotter. These are the niftily titled NHM #7 mittens (Ravelry link). This pattern was my favourite when I first looked at the book, although now I have about a dozen more.

I am not particularly happy with the job I did of picking up the stitches for the thumb (marked with a big red ring just so you can’t miss my ineptitude). It looks messy, though I’ve neatened up the looser stitches and closed the holes. But as these gloves are for me, rather than a gift, I’m not going to stress over it, but try to make the second one neater.

I’m halfway up the chart for the second mitt, so hopefully the weather won’t get any colder before I get the chance to finish the pair!