Sheep stocking hat

Sheep stocking hat

Living in Wisconsin is amazing, and one of the most interesting things being here is that people notice hats. Here you HAVE to wear a hat; it's just too cold.  It was a "warmish" morning today with temperatures in the low teens with no wind.  So people dress appropriately. 

But, if you wear anything other than a regular black stocking hat, people notice.  My chicken hat was a HUGE hit.  So, knowing that and wanting to dig into my stash of smaller balls of yarn, I did the Sheep stocking cat. 

This was super fast and easy to make.  If you're comfortable knitting in the round and are ready to tackle intarsia knitting, give this one a try.  The floats (where you carry the yarn behind the stitches you're working) for color work are short which reduces snags and frustration and you're only working two colors at a time.

When you stretch it out or put it on and see the sweet sheep you can't help but smile.

Feel free to purchase this hat from my etsy.com shop: Pineknollknits.com

Mittens with flair

Mittens with flair

Mittens are a great way to experiment with color combinations, different techniques and stitch patterns as well as basic form.  One of the difficulties I have with mittens, or rather coats, is that cuff of store bought mittens are not long enough.  When I move my arms and the sleeve of my coat moves, I have exposed wrists.

 

I played around with a wave stitch that I originally learned when making a blanket and just added 2 1/2" to the end of my standard mitten cuff.  To finish the split (the cuff was not knit in the round) I crocheted a single chain stitch to give it a finished look.   The final step was to add a small loop and button to close up the cuff.

 

 

Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome.  I have warm wrists and mittens with a bit of flair.