The Accessories Issue

It seems to be accessory-palooza around here, with the unfortunate consequence of a great lack of posting, either here of in Ravelry.  (Many items have, however, made a brief appearance in Instagram.)  So, to force myself to get those photos taken, I am assembling my accessories into a little post here.

The last shall be first . . . here's my accessory in progress: fingerless gloves from Ogle Designs, both yarn and pattern.  I won them as a door prize at the Madison Knitters Guild Knit-In, lucky me!  The brown and tan colors do not photograph well (at least for someone with my poor-to-middling skills), but so look lovely in person.  A good pattern and a fun quick knit.  I see these being stolen by a teenager when complete.

At holiday time I became Barley hat crazed and knit three from recycled cashmere yarn as gifts for my husband, nephew and daughter's boyfriend.  When I found this well-aged ball of yarn I had hand dyed at Camp Stitches, I decided it had to be a Barley, too.  This is a great pattern from Tin Can Knits that really successfully walks the unisex line.  And, it's free!  I am not so excited about the color pooling on the ribbed band, but it is only a little bit that doesn't flow into the hat itself, so I (and, hopefully, it's future recipient) can live with it.  This pattern is excellent for using variegated yarns.

The other personal project is a hat from reclaimed cashmere yarn.  The pattern, bobble and cable hat by Laura Zukaite is, unfortunately, one of the worst written patterns I have ever experienced.  There are both poor design decisions (not working the ribbing on smaller needles), impossible attributes (and 18 st by 32 row gauge in stockinette, really?) and poor (actually horrendous) pattern writing (too many examples to list).  My version is what appeared in her Luxe Knits book.  According to Ravelry, the pattern is now available on the Knit Picks website.  I can only hope it has been strenuously edited.  This is my second version of this hat, and this one resolves all of the flaws I failed to correct in the first, so I am actually thrilled with the results.  I am wearing it any time the temperature dips below 30 degrees F, which, fortunately, is less often these days.

I think this item has not been posted because it really deserves much better photos.  Until that happens, I give you my Regia Zoofari mitts.  (No, although this photo was taken in the dead of winter, my skin is not actually so pale it glows.)  I love animal prints and had wanted to play with this yarn for some time.  I am not a sock knitter, but I think the two ball of the zebra print might end up as socks.

Much of my other recent knitting has been in preparation for teaching at the MKG Knit-In.  I worked an easy striped cowl from three recycled cashmere yarns.  The weights were not exactly the same, so there is a little resulting texture to the design which I quite like.  The pattern is super easy, so I plan to offer it for free here.  Hope to have it up soon.