Merry Christmas!

I really like visiting Montreal. I end up walking a lot, which I enjoy, and there's a lot to look at. A few days ago, I took a trip to Chez Mouliné Yarns on Notre Dame West. It's a large store. They had a nice selection of yarns including a nice selection of Handmaiden and Malabrigo. There's a very good sale at the moment so I picked up a few skeins of the former and the latter and put them away in my suitcase.

In a walking city where the average low temperature in winter ranges from 10 to -15°C (6 - 13°F), you really need a good hat. I've been working on a modified version of the Felicity hat for my daughter. Here's the pdf link to the free pattern. I'm making it out of sock yarn.

I started by casting on 150 stitches. My gauge is about 7 stitches per inch on a 2.5 mm needle. I knit a tube 5.5 inches in length. This serves as the hat's lining, or hem to keep your ears warm under the hat itself.




















Then I did a picot edge to make a nice fold and began knitting in a lace weight mohair along with the sock yarn. The mohair adds warmth and also depth to the fabric. Anyway, I pretty much followed the pattern for Felicity for the rest of the way, except that since I'm using sock yarn, I followed the numbers on Bluebutton's project page, which are adjusted for sock yarn. I added 3 red stripes which are a little sportier looking than I wanted, but again, the black mohair kind of tones them down. I've worked on it more since I took this picture. In fact, I'm working on the final decreases now, hoping I won't run out of the mohair.
















As I said, I've been limiting myself to sock yarn because I'm pretty sure it's moth proof. I used up two different kinds of sock yarn for these mittens.
















We had a very nice Christmas today, after all the miserable washing and cleaning of the past week. We didn't decorate until Christmas eve. We limited ourselves to making a wreath out of pine boughs and hanging it above a shelf on which we placed our gifts and a little creche made out of toys and bits.













































PS. James - the Yorkshire puddings were spectacular and we ate 5 each!

Comments

Mary Lou said…
Merry christmas to you. I LOVE the creche. I did 6 pairs of popover mittens this Christmas in doubled/tripled sock yarn leftovers because they would be machine washable, not for the moths, thank goodness.
December 26, 2009 at 8:52 AM
Helen said…
Felicity is fun. Bet you can't stop at one :)
December 28, 2009 at 12:22 PM
vasudha said…
how very, very adorable!
January 29, 2010 at 7:29 PM
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