Blue Snood and Pussycat Hat

A couple of amusing winter accessories for Gaby I knit at the beginning of the month. First - a blue snood for her penguin hat. She wanted it broader and  shorter, so that it would fit snug around the face and cover the mouth and nose in our freezing winter mornings.

Pattern: Blue Snood (personal pattern)
Yarn: Alize Lanagold 590, 230 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 9 days

The snood is seamless, cast with provisional cast on and finished with kitchener stitch.
Gaby is wearing it from the wrong side on these photos, but I noticed it only when I browsed through the photos at home. It happens :)

With the remaining 70 g from the third ball of the yarn I made a small pussycat hat. The metal token is from a pair of old jeans. Currently this is Gaby's favourite hat :)

Pattern: Pussycat Hat from prjaga.ru
Yarn: Alize Lanagold 590, 70 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 3 days

Three New Hats

This past January was the coldest of all Januaries for the past 53 years in Bulgaria, so I spent it knitting hats with polar fleece.
The Red Pome is for my friend to whom I gifted the red Shells & Tide shawl. It's the same color, though the camera might make it look different.

Pattern: Red Pome (based on a chart from Internet)
Yarn: Alize Lanagold 56, 100g
Needle: 3.5 mm, 4 mm
Time to knit: 4 days

Rib - 100 stitches, 22 rows 2x2, increased to 120 sts for the body - 10 chart repeats of 12 sts each.
36 rows of body, 12 rows of crown decreases.

The hat follows the measurements I used for Gaby's purple hat and has a polar fleece inside for extra warmth.

The second hat is a repetition of Gaby's Rigsby for a friend - she asked for the same pattern and the same color, so nothing new here.

Pattern: Rigsby Pom Pom Beanie
Yarn: Alize Lanagold 111, 100 g
Needle: 3.5 mm, 4 mm
Time to knit: 4 days

The third hat is for me - a black cabled beanie with an ecofur pom pom.

Pattern: 12-sts Cabled Beanie
Yarn: Alize Lanagold 60, 100 g
Needle: 3.5 mm, 4 mm
Time to knit:  3 days

Rib - 98 sts 1x1 for 20 rows, incr. to 144 sts - 12 cables of 12 sts for 36 rows,
12 rows of crown decreases. I made a polar fleece for this hat too, but I haven't attached it yet, as the stitch pattern is quite dense and the hat is pretty warm as it is, as was tested during our hike on Saturday.

Rigsby Pom Pom Inspired Beanie

A new purple hat - I've made so many of these, but who's counting :)) (nine purple hats?!)
My last for 2016 and first for 2017. The pattern was inspired by a beanie sold by The North Face company - Rigsby Pom Pom Beanie.

Pattern: Rigsby Pom Pom Beanie (visual interpretation)
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids, 100 g (80 g body, 20 g pom pom)
Needle: 3.5 mm rib, 4 mm body
Time to knit: 3 days

The hat is very thick and squishy, with a polar fleece for extra warmth and a big fat pom pom for fun.

Purple Hat and Cowl

A new set of a hat and cowl I knit for Gaby. Though the hat is knit with Cashmira 100% wool and the cowl with Lanagold 50% wool, 50% acrylic, both are Alize yarns color 111 (purple), so the colors are matching.

Pattern: Chain by KK design
Yarn: Alize Cashmira 100% wool, 80 g
Needle: 3 mm, 4 mm
Time to knit: 2 days

I first saw this hat in Natalia's blog, queued the hat and downloaded the pattern, which was then a free pattern. It is an easy pattern with some very clever crown decreases, which I haven't seen before. I made two and a half repeats of the hat body chart before the crown decreases. The hat has been in use for already a week and Gaby likes it.

The cowl came as a logical continuation of the hat - I had some 130 g of Lanagold in the same color and I wanted to make a cowl. I could have made it a smaller more narrow cowl with just these 130 grams, but I opted for a broader one (about 35 cm wide) and it soon became clear that I'll need additional 100 g of yarn. I bought another skein of Lanagold 111, but the new batch is more saturated in color, as is noticeable in the above picture. Anyway I knitted the cowl in the two shades of purple, I prefer to think of this defect as an intended effect :)))

Pattern: Purple Cowl (personal pattern)
Yarn: Alize Lanagold 111, 230 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 5 days

Accidental Legwarmers

These legwarmers, as the title says, came quite by accident. I cast on Merenkulkija socks for Alex, but when I reached the heel part I realized that I didn't have enough yarn for men size socks. I didn't want to buy more of the same yarn as I'm trying to destash a little, the cables looked quite nice - so I finished the socks into legwarmers. And because the yarn was a remnant skein from Gaby's tunic, they got together well as a set. And I'm knitting another pair of socks for Alex, I hope the yarns I've chosen (two other skeins remnant from big projects) will suffice.

Pattern: Merenkulkija
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Classic, 70 g
Needle: 3.5 mm
Time to knit: 6 days

Little Red Riding Slippers

When I went out this morning I noticed that the cherry tree in front of our building had lost almost half of its leaves overnight and had covered beautifully the steps on the side of the building. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a few photos and then asked my daughter to pose just for a couple of minutes with her new slippers before going to school (well, obviously, not in her slippers :))) The things we do (and our closest are made to do) in the name of knitting ...

This is quite a popular pattern, which makes for comfortable and cozy slippers. There are so many pages written and even youtube videos on the making of these slippers that I will not dwell much on mine. I used one skein of red Alize Lanagold Solids, and as I ran out of yarn for the final rows, I finished the slippers with the burgundy red Lanagold for my cardigan. In stead of casting off the stitches and sewing the slippers I made them seamless, folding the last row and grafting it.

Pattern: Little Red Riding Slippers by DROPS Design
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 56, 100 g, 240 m + a few grams of Lanagold 358
Needle: US 6 / 4 mm
Time to knit: 4-5 days