When I started making this set, there was snow, freezing rain, and ice. As I finished them up, that was gone. Yesterday it was back to the low 60′s, not really hat and mittens weather. I’m pretty sure that we will still have at least one more blast of winter that will allow me to wear them. If not, I’m all ready for next year…
Some details about these:
Both are made of Chroma yarn from Knitpicks. I had never used it before and love the softness, the slight fuzziness, and the patterning of the colors. This colorway is called U-pick, which I think is either discontinued or will be shortly. There are still lots of other great colorways, but I liked this one because I thought it would go with both my purple coat and my brown one. I used worsted weight for the mittens and fingering weight for the hat.
I made the mittens first:
These are from a really basic, simple pattern that I’ve had forever from Cottage Creations (they don’t have a website, but a lot of yarn stores seem to sell them- I love and have used many of their patterns). These are from their “Projects for Community Knitting” booklet. The ribbed cuff continues up into the thumb and they were really easy and are very comfortable to wear.
I then moved on to the hat:
I fell in love with this hat when I first saw it. It is from Tangled, a web magazine dedicated to those who like to both knit and crochet. Some of their patterns are for sale, and others like this one for the Tessellations Hat are free. They always have a lot of fun designs. I found this one through their blog, which can be found here or from their main web page.
I absolutely loved crocheting this. I adore granny squares and double crocheting is my very favorite thing to do- there is a rhythm to it that isn’t there for me in any other stitch. It may be weird to have a favorite stitch, but there it is. I also love the way this pattern takes advantage of the slow color changes in the yarn. Sewing it up was even fun and it was quicker to make than I thought it would be. It’s probably sort of an eccentric hat, too, which I also like :).
