a little Christmas blessing.

A very close and dear friend of mine welcomed their first child into the world last week after a harrowing few hours. Thankfully, baby and Mom are doing wonderfully. The family will be spending Christmas at home with their family in a town in South-Eastern BC called Cranbrook. It’s a gorgeous town that thrives on resource-based industry nestled in the Rocky Mountain trench. So it is cold. Very cold. Beautiful. But cold.

I couldn’t send little Kate home with her dear parents without a new winter toque to brave the snow and ice! What kind of a friend would I be?!

Pattern: Alfalfa Baby Hat by Kate Gagnon-Osborn

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Rios, colourway 139 Pocion

Needles: 4.00mm

I just love this toque. I still think it looks like a gnome hat – it is just so adorable. TinyTuna’s head has grown since I made his but the toque still fits (although snuggly). It will be a little big on Kate but she’ll grow into it very quickly – she is the same size Tiny was when he was born (and the same length, weird, huh?).

The Rios is perfect for this pattern as it is interesting enough too highlight, rather than detract from, the pattern of increases and decreases. You can see in the two photos below, if you read the pattern and study the photos carefully, that I changed the decreases slightly and worked them as follows:

Knit to 3 stitches prior to marker, ssk, K1, sm, K1, k2tog.

I did this because if you look at my original toque, the ssk and k2tog pull apart when they are stretched over the baby’s head. It is not terrible but now that he has grown, they pull apart really profoundly. I do not like the look of them so I thought adding the 2 stitches between them would help with ease.

As you can see in the photos, it worked perfectly:

I will mention, though, it made working the decreases in the crown a little tricky as I had to move things around a little bit but I will definitely work this the same way next time. I have one more half-skein on Rios in my stash that will become a second slightly bigger alfalfa for Tiny. I am thinking about knitting it on 4.5mm for the extra room he now needs.

williamette.

Only good things can be said about this jacket. Only good. There is nothing about this jacket I don’t like. Nothing. I absolutely love it.

Seaming it was challenging as I am still learning but I think it actually went okay – every time it gets a little better. The pocket and sleeve insets worked up over the course of a couple of evenings.

I couldn’t be happier with the finished pockets – no loose change falling through the bottom here! The finished I-Cord on the pockets gives the sweater a very polished look that not only suits the jacket, it also gives it a certain sophistication.

The collar is added after the shaping in the yoke is finished and cast off. I knit it to the intended length – I really make no modifications but I did want a button at the top of collar to fasten it around my neck in the winter. I added one more buttonhole when I did the I-Cord bind off down the fronts.

At Fibres West, I found these very cool coconut buttons which suit the jacket. I’m glad I saved them for this project. The fit? I could not be happier. When I tried it on for the first time, my husband was even impressed and he usually doesn’t pay much attention – mostly because he’s seen me working on something for so long he forgets which project is which and whether something is done or not.

This is the first time I have not only used the called-for yarn in a project but also the same colour as the designer. I fell in love with this jacket the moment Amy published it – which was sometime last year. Since I hadn’t learned how to seam yet, I kept putting it off and putting it off – but when I had the opportunity to buy the yarn 40% off at my LYS … there was no more excuse making.

I swatched that day, then got quite scared and put it aside for a while. I finally cast on in May and have just been quietly work on it since – between other projects. This took the pressure off for this to be perfect and it worked up beautifully – I could not be happier. I think it’s safe to say this is actually my favourite handknit ever :)