Cable earwarmer in Malabrigo rios

I felt so confident after making myself handwarmers!  Plus I was still wearing my legwarmers every day!  And nothing could be as boring as the cowl that I finished.  I've never progressed through skills like this before in knitting and the feeling of confidence - that I could start a project and conceivably finish it successfully - is really addictive.

So I decided to try using up the rest of my Malabrigo Rios and making my friend Helen, who is obsessed with knits, an earwarmer.  I saw her wearing one a few months ago and she's moving to the depths of northern Scotland soon so I reckoned she needed another one. Plus this gave me a chance to try out another new skill - cables!

I trawled Ravelry, as always, for something that fit my criteria and came up with this free pattern: the Chevron cable headband by Kirsty Grainger.  I wanted something with clear cables but not with too many of them and this fit the bill.

I cast on initially using size 4.5mm needles, as the pattern recommends, and knitted about three rows before deciding I thought it was too loose, so I sized down to a 4.  I was happy with that.  I found the c4 cable pattern to be pretty accessible, although of course with an extra tool in my hand things seemed to go awfully slow, I definitely gained confidence with the pattern as I saw my beautiful cables emerge!  This was a really fun project for that reason - I got faster as I went along, and I couldn't believe that I was making such a nice result! 

I got to the end and kind of winged it regarding sewing the ends together.  The join looks a bit rough but I think it's not going to be too visible, and it will hold pretty well.  I used a tapestry needle and the ends from the earwarmer and just weaved it through the obvious loops on each side.  I am not sure how you are supposed to knit pieces together.  There's always something more to learn in knitting!

Anyway my success with this bolstered me to pick my Miette back up.  That's a project I started over a year ago, when I was living in Arizona, and then put down early on.  Because of the lace, plus being a sweater, it seemed overwhelming!

Also this earwarmer took very little yarn.  I made two legwarmers and this from two balls of Malabrigo rios and I still have half a ball left - probably enough for another earwarmer! 

Easy handwarmer mitts in Outlaw Vanitas DK

These entered my head as a good next project after my cowl because my hands were freezing.  I needed mitts.  I needed easy ones.  And of course up in Pheriche, high in the Khumbu, I had some limitations on my yarn and needles.

The yarn is outlaw vanitas DK.
I accidentally didn't bring size 3.5 - 4 DPNs with me.  This yarn worked on smaller needles, and I thought it was the best choice for cozy handwarmers - everything else I had was too fine or too big.

The pattern is a free download from Ravelry, called the Sarah - basic fingerless mitts.  The yarn in the picture is so beautiful!  (It's Manos del Uruguay silk blend.) 

I got ready to start and realised that it required bigger needles.  I was nervous to do any changes to the pattern, but I went ahead with 3.5 dpns and this yarn, and did the size Large instead of small.

The knitting went very well.  I was nervous about the thumb gusset and really everything to do with the thumb, and so I was really impressed when it all went well!  I made these in just about 2 days each.  The only trouble was with the hole where the thumb meets the fingers - I did a good job on the first mitt and a bad job on the second one. The instructions have you mirror them, but I think this is not necessary as they are truly identical. Considering the location of my dpns, it would have been easier to make two right mitts.  That's what I would do in the future.

These got put to use right away.  The yarn has fluffed up and pilled a bit from use, but it has been literally daily use in the clinic for about a month, so I think they are holding up well.  They are warm and really help!  I was struggling not to have my fingers freeze every day, as our clinic in Pheriche is not heated and was averaging 3 degrees in the mornings - inside!  

When we closed our clinic I gave them to the guy running one of the lodges nearby as he is keeping it open for another month.  He was really happy to get them and I was particularly glad to have made the size large as it stretched to fit without problems.  I think that I could have made a medium for myself, considering that there was stretch over time. 

I might buy the beautiful silk blend yarn and make more of these. They were so fast and mitts are so handy that these might become a gift staple in the future.  Because it was a straightforward project I also really felt my confidence increase.

Mistake Rib Cowl by Purl Soho in Outlaw Vanitas

So what to knit?  I finished my nice legwarmers which I immediately put on and didn't take off for about a month.

I liked the idea of this cowl, which is a free pattern, as a way of practicing pattern.  I also wanted to make the Thorn Cowl but it is 5 feet long wtf??  So I thought I could judge by one cowl how much to shrink the pattern of the second one.  I am still not convinced about cowls for me but as a backup there are lots of other people that like them!  I thought this pattern would be really nice and particularly covet the scarf in the purl soho pictures but a scarf seemed too endless and I wouldn't really wear it daily in Nepal.

The yarn is Outlaw Vanitas (on Ravelry here), the colour is transience.  I really like working with this yarn.  It's beautiful and soft.  The pale ice blue is a lovely colour.  I had considered making the Purl Soho pullover with this yarn but wasn't sure it's the right size, plus it seemed like too big of a project to jump right into.

So, the cowl is pretty easy.  I used the same size needles as the pattern suggests, and it's quite boring and seemed to take forever.

Also I'm not sure why I love Purl Soho so much but I really am inspired by their ideas!  No affiliate links from me, never fear.

At the end I was ready to be done - made it 12 inches as 15 seemed overkill.  This definitely will be a gift.  Still not sold on cowls.

However I do love the depth that the pattern gives and eventually, when I'm cold and have time, I will probably make the scarf for myself! 

And here's Holly in the cowl - she was stoked with her gift!