Even though the description on the pattern suggested that I would finish in 5 hours, I took my time. It actually took me five evenings to finish this project.
Front view of jacket. I used a vintage button from my mother’s collection.
Back View
It really was a delightful knit. I am so thrilled that the yarn combination created an interesting and sturdy fabric. I held two yarns together to achieve the look.
Now there are two less balls of yarn in my stash. With the ball of yellow yarn remaining, I plan to knit some baby beanies.
Anyone out there in Blogville have some patterns to suggest?
Gosh, this was a fun and easy project, once I got the hang of the 3-color slip stitch pattern. The yarns were great (Cascade Elysian) and blocked out beautifully. If only I had a five-year-old to test the fit and pose for the photo shoot.
A quick solution for a head mannequin: Grab an oatmeal box and draw a face on it. At least this solves for the photo shoot. Checking the fit will require plopping the piece on a real live child.
View from the side. I stuffed in a small ball of yarn to fill out the crown.
Looking at the back, you observe my slight alteration to the pattern: I noticed in the pattern’s photographs that the neck increases resulted in a slight flare.
To accentuate this feature, I switched from 1 by 1 ribbing to seed stitch just in this section. This will allow the back of the neck to fit easily over a collar.
Or, the flare could be tucked inside coat, to keep winter winds away from tender skin.
If you like the pattern, here is a link to Gretchen Tracey’s website.
She offers the balaclava in a baby size as well as dozens of other cute head coverings for kids. This pattern was free. I hope you’ll give her designs a try.
Despite my moodiness, I managed to complete a little knitting project this week. The pattern for this knitted and beaded collar, above, is found in 60 QuickLuxury Knits, published in 2014 by the editors of Sixth and Spring Books. I suspect that it is now out of print. I bought mine through an on-line used book store.
There are likely to be similar pattern on Ravelry.com.
As I was knitting, I thought about the late Justice Ginsberg and her iconic fashion (and political) statement collars.
One of many obituaries published last year.This one is known as the Dissent Collar
Mine was made with some fingering weight yarn found in my stash. The charcoal yarn is a blend of silk and wool. The pink is a blend of rayon and wool. The beads are 6/0 glass seed beads in a color called Red Rainbow, from the local hobby store.
I hope I get to wear mine soon. One couldn’t choose a better role model than RBG.
I got started on this project because of a problem I encountered during the recent SuperSnow event. It was SO cold for SO long I found myself wearing my hand knitted wool socks night and day. Don’t get me wrong, I love wearing cozy hand-knitted wool socks. But at the end of the cold snap, I examined both pair and noticed that the soles were thinning out. Unless I got busy with repairs, I would be down at least one pair for the duration. So I decided that I needed warm cozy wool footwear that would hold up to walking many miles on our cold hard tile floors. Hence the dorm boots.
It has all the characteristics I needed: Thick soles, fast to knit and used a miniscule amount of yarn. I rummaged through my stash and found some nasty beige acrylic-wool blend in a heavy worsted. The pattern calls for holding yarns double, so I worked from two skeins for the sole. My stash rummage also yielded a sturdy pink wool harvested from a too-itchy scarf and a tweedy, wine-colored Italian wool orphan ball given to me by knitting friend Kathy. I held these two double to work the upper and the cuff.
It was magical how quickly the first boot came together. You could knit the pair in two evenings if you concentrated on your work. I took a more leisurely pace and did this pair over four evenings, including a sit and knit session on Tuesday.
Sadly, I lost track of my rows during the sit and knit. So my booties don’t match.
No matter. They are purposeful items. Good looks come second.
If I were in need of a last minute Christmas gift, this pattern could come to the rescue. Just think, with a bit of focus, I could fancy them up with different colors, stitches and possibly a pompom or two. Wouldn’t that cheer up a loved one, popping out of a Christmas stocking, on a cold and snowy Christmas morning?
Daily Fiber 
