It’s almost October. And that means it’s time for me to start knitting Jack’s winter scarf, hat and mittens, not to mention his yearly sweater. I dragged Jack to Purl yesterday to buy some yarn for these endeavors. He was pretty good natured about it, especially in light of the fact that he woke up at 4:30am and didn’t take a nap at all yesterday. So as reward for a completely sleepless day, I decided to walk to Soho and fondle buy some yarn.
Here’s what I picked up…
For Jack’s scarf, I am using a pattern I found on Liesl’s blog, Disdressed. I made it last year and it was great! I love how you thread one end of the scarf through the other end so it doesn’t come undone and kids can’t pull them off. Ingenious! I started the scarf last night and should be done tonight. I am using the multi-colored yarn for the scarf, hat and mittens. Here’s the progress thus far…
The burgundy and blue yarn is for Jack’s sweater. I am going to use the same sweater vest pattern as last year as it was really easy and fast. I bought a book called The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patternsby Ann Budd and it’s very clever. You can use whatever yarn you want, whatever size needles to get the guage of any of the projects in the book. Very cool.
Here are some shots of Jack’s last two Christmas sweaters:
While I do have a picture of the scarf I made last year, I don’t have any of the hat or mittens though. 
Ok, it was a marathon day and I finished the scarf before I finished this post, if you can believe it?!?! Because I scarcely can. Here’s the finished scarf in all it’s glory. The second picture shows my finger inside the hole made by splitting the 22 stitches onto two different needles (dpn’s) and knitting them separately (you have to cut the yarn after knitting one side to pick up the stitches on the second needle). Then when both sides are equal in length, you knit them onto a single needle again and thereby closing off the hole or slit. Ingenious! The third photo shows one scarf end threaded through the hole or slit of the second end.
I have already cast on for the hat now. Using Ann Budd’s book (referenced above). Just a simple hat knit in the round. The yarn will give the interest.
Happy knitting and sewing everyone!
I love variegated yarn. I just pulled out my knitting–dusted off the project and tried to remember what I was doing! It is a cotton sweater–meant for last spring! I love the scarf pattern. I might look into the book. For my kids, I like quick and simple—in case, they loose them!
I was just thinking about making another one of these, myself! Glad to see it’s coming in handy. Cheers!