A Very Late Christmas Gift

I finally finished a gift for my sister which was supposed to be for her Christmas. Both hat and scarf come from Kim Hargreaves book “Still”. The patterns in the book look fairly simple and I thought I would manage to knit them up in no time. I was wrong. The yarn for the scarf is no longer available. Which is a shame as I would have loved the colour way storm for my sister. I think she would have liked it. Thankfully it was just a striping version of Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze and so easy to replace. I picked out anthracite as I liked the greys and I was sure my sister would. I forget that knitting with a lace weight yarn takes far longer though. I saw on ravelry that a few people knitted it up with half the suggested amount of yarn. I wanted the full length scarf though. While the fabric knitted is cosy it is also light and needs a few wraps to keep someone warm. I also had some leftover black from the hat which I added into the centre of the scarf. Not sure it really adds much to it but my sister liked the touch and I was happy for not wasting any yarn.

The hat combines Rowan’s kidsilk haze and Rowan kid classic. You knit them both together. I had some trouble with that as they are both sticky yarns and I found myself in knots a few times. My sister actually inadvertently picked the hat when she pointed out she liked it while looking through the book. It’s knitted in a fisherman’s rib and like the scarf is an easy knit. Unlike the scarf it also knits up quickly. The hat is super soft and squishy. Plus it makes my sister’s pink hair really stand out. No photo’s sadly as she refuses to wear it over to mine after she saw what the cat did to my hat.

This is my first time knitting with mohair. I quite liked the effect that it had when combining it with a second yarn. It gives a soft fuzzy layer which is so warm. I remember my mum knit me a mohair jumper when I was little because I loved hers and I couldn’t wear it because it was too itchy. I don’t see that being a problem with this as it’s so soft. Lorraine hasn’t complained so far anyway. I have to confess that I had planned to knit the scarf in black too. However, I knit the hat first and quickly remembered why I hated knitting with black. It felt like I was more prone top making mistakes and finding it harder to see. I also found it harder to see where I was in the pattern. I was lucky it was an easy knit. I probably wouldn't have had that problem with the scarf since the fabric it creates is not as dense. At least I did get some black in there though and the grey was such a nice shade.