REALLY late gift.

I haven't had a chance to meet up with a friend of mine and I still have her Christmas present to deliver. I will be seeing her next weekend and I hope that we will have enough cold weather left for her to use these. The hat is a pattern that is called the Rhinebeck Hat and I wish I could remember what book I got it from. I had to change the weight of the yarn because I couldn't find any nice variegated yarn in a sport weight in my LYS. So I used a worsted weight and not without problems. But problems of my own making. I'm not a person that swatches small stuff. And I should have. Guessing the number of stitches to cast on and what size needle to use was just that. A guess. And I guessed wrong ... not once but twice. Eegads! you might say .. what is wrong with this girl. Well, to my defense, I really didn't care a whole lot. I had lots of the yarn and all my "wrong sizes" go to charity. So really, how can you go wrong (except for the time spent.) It also gave me lots of experience at knitting with a strand of yarn in each hand. Anyway, the hat you see is a third time around and two design changes. It was fun to make. (All three times.) The mitts are really a version of the "Gossip Gloves" and you can find the pattern for free if you google it. I just set in the fairisle pattern.

I do think though, that after this experience, I will make a New Year's resolution (a month late) to start swatching. It might save me lots of time.